Blue and Green: We'll Do It Together
by PartyGod Douglas
Summary: Lapis and Peridot having changed a lot since their time at the barn together. They've been growing closer and learning about Earth every single day in their own way. They're not completely sure where they are going to go from here, but they know one thing: they're going to do it together! (A Lapidot Week 2016 Fanfic which starts off during the events of "Back to the Moon!")
1. Day One: Earth (learning new things)

**Hello everyone! PartyGod Douglas here with my contribution to Lapidot Week 2016. Since I'm am a crappy artist, all I have to give you is my words, but I hope with fanfic gives you all the Lapidot-y goodness you all deserve, because I had a lot of fun writing it!**

 **Anyways, on to the story!**

 ** _~We'll Do It Together~_**

 **Day One (16th):** Earth! (learning about earth together)

"So, do you guys wanna be prisoners too?"

The question passed fluidly from Amethyst, who was currently shapeshifted as Jasper, asked the blue and green gem pair jestingly.

Peridot moves instinctually to Lapis' side, grabbing ahold of her arm to provide any comfort necessary staring down the still-transformed Amethyst after she asked her seemingly absent-minded question.

"Not really." Lapis replied indignantly her facial expression matching her distinctly displeased tone of voice.

"Alright."

Amethyst winks and delivers a playful finger gun.

"Just checkin'." Amethyst turns to follow the massive group of people heading for the Tiny Ruby ship. As a slight surprise to both Lapis and Peridot, all nine of the figures who entered the ship seemed to do so with extraordinary ease. The ship waited around for an awkward period of time before blasting off as it had done one time before after their last encounter with the Ruby Red Squad.

When the ship was easily out of sight Lapis broke off from Peridot's clutches and began walking back towards the entrance to the barn. She took her time getting there, choosing to walk instead of fly, with her hands clasped together behind her head. Peridot was still staring off into the distance where Steven and the other flew off too.

"Peridot."

Peridot breaks from her focus and turns towards Lapis who is leaning against the corner of the barn staring at Peridot with an unidentifiable expression.

"Are you okay?"

The light blue gem asked unenthusiastically, but sporting a small toothless smile with her usual, tired-looking, neutral expression. To anyone else it might seem like Lapis didn't really care but having lived with her for the greater part of an indeterminable amount of time, Peridot knew Lapis was being genuine.

"Oh, yes. Of course. I apologize. I just hope they're going to be okay."

Peridot starts walking towards the entrance of the barn where Lapis is. Peridot attempts to walk past her but is stopped by a comforting hand on her shoulder. Peridot looks up to where a pair of intense blue eyes were staring down at her.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. Steven's with them so what could possibly go wrong?" Lapis retorted matter-of-factly before notice Peridot looked off and to the side nervously. Lapis' eyes widened when she actually thought about what she just said.

Steven does attract a lot of danger.

The fight at her water tower.

Almost being brought back to homeworld by Jasper.

Jasper showing up on Greg's boat while he wanted her to have a good time.

Just thinking of her brought back a series of uncomfortable memories.

"I mean, the infamous leader of the crystal gems can't come along on every mission."

Lapis redirected the conversation, bringing back Peridot's attention.

"Not when we still have the third season of _Camp Pining Hearts_ to finish."

Peridot hardly had time to react before she was grabbed underneath both of her arms by the blue gem who had activated her wings and gracefully flew them around the corner and up on their truck-bed Balcony. Before she knew it, she was back in her original spot from before this whole misadventure took place; she went to go say something before she was interrupted mid-thought by Lapis jutting her hand out in front of Peridot, holding a familiar red Bow tie in her hand. She looked up at Lapis and she was giving her a sly smirk. Peridot smiled widely while graciously taking the bow tie from her barn mate's hand and applying it correctly to the top of her torso. Peridot proceeded to then get comfy as her favorite Barn Mate un-paused the episode of _Camp Pining Hearts_. The episodes continued on for the next several hours, blaring out various Canadianisms and Melodramatic writing which Peridot and Lapis couldn't help but find themselves attached to.

They laughed.

They complained (mainly about Percy).

And then the last episode on the dvd finally came to a conclusion.

Percy, Pierre and Paulette had all set up camp together in the middle of the woods. The moon was high and the fire was low and dim. Percy and Pierre had settled in one tent while Paulette settled down in another.

"Even though were lost in the woods together, Paulette. The color war is still real." Pierre stated ominously before the episode ended very suddenly and the DVD player made a 'whirring' sound and ejecting the now watched _Camp Pining Hearts_ dvd.

"What I don't understand is why they just don't keep making their way back to camp during the night. They have light sources available so finding their way back should be easy enough."

Peridot snarled the next part.

"Even for someone as incompetent as Paulette."

A loud snort is heard, causing Peridot's head to turns towards the source of the noise only to see Lapis still laughing.

"What I'd say?"

"Humans need to sleep. I figured you would know that with how much time you spent around Steven."

Peridot blushes lightly.

"I had other things on my mind back then. I was far too busy saving the Earth to pay attention to every weird human thing Steven did."

"You saved a weird planet, you're gonna have to get used to it."

"Don't I know it." Peridot quickly added on.

"Plus, Sleep isn't all bad. It's actually kind of nice." Lapis stated absentmindedly, not really intending to be heard, but the shimmering eyes of her roommate were more than enough sign that Peridot heard her.

"You've slept before?! What was it like? Was it quiet? Did it feel nice? Lapis you have to answer me!"

Peridot's enthusiasm had once again peaked to its frequent high, which is something Lapis had come to know and realize living with the small, green gem. It was something she had come to enjoy as well.

"It was something. I don't really honestly remember much. It was after everything happened and I was just so exhausted." Lapis explained, trying to get off of this topic.

Peridot's enthusiasm started to fall quickly. The bright, big smile she had started to dissipate and Lapis' face contorted to a frown.

"I-"

Suddenly like a firecracker, Peridot was back in her excited state as she scrambled quickly to grab one of Lapis's hands and looking up at her with stars in her eyes.

"We can learn about it together then!" Peridot said with a cute, toothy cat smile.

"What do you mean?"

"Lapis! We can sleep together!"

Lapis blushed incessantly after hearing this statement.

"Ummmmm." Was all Lapis could manage to get out. Peridot's enthusiasm did not waver and she just continued to explain.

"We have that Horizontally-aligned, resting station tied to two of the posts in the barn!"

"So what are you suggesting?"

"Lapis, we have to use the Horizontally-aligned resting station! There is plenty of room so it should be no problem for both of us to be able to fall asleep, and it is something we can do together and cross that off of our impossibly long list of strange Earth customs in which we have conquered!"

Lapis looked down on the face of her roommate. Peridot's smile was reminiscent of the one she gave lapis when she saved her from the Ruby ship. If it wasn't night time then the clouds would have parted and the sun would have been shining down.

Lapis' face softened and she gave a small smile.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Yes! I'll race you there."

Peridot began crawling through the back windshield of the truck she and lapis were sitting in. her excitement was causing her to get a little more stuck than she would normally. Lapis couldn't help but snort as she summoned her water wings and efficiently flew down through the front door way of the barn and landed very daintily on hammock Lapis had become quite accustomed to.

" _A lot better than the roof of the barn._ " Lapis thought to herself only to be brought out of her thoughts by Peridot landing with a decent _thud_ on the ground below the truck but quickly picking herself back up to run towards the hammock. Her short legs took her surprisingly fast to her location, but she stopped in place seeing a very comfortable Lapis outstretched into the hammock with her arms crossed behind her head. A small content smile on her face.

"You win this round! Next time you won't be so lucky as to outperform me!"

"It helps to be able to fly without a piece of metal under my feet." Lapis snarked back.

Peridot raised her finger to emphasize what she was about to say but was met by a blue finger right in front of her face.

"C'mon. You wanted to learn about this together."

"Oh! Ummm. Yes! Of course!"

Peridot takes up Lapis on her invitation. She grabs the side of the hammock and attempts to push herself onto the hammock. Peridot doesn't accomplish much by doing this other than causing herself to fall backwards and the current occupant of the hammock to fall on top of her.

"Blargh!"

Peridot cried out, eyes closed from the fall. When she opened them she saw Lapis right on top of her. Her hair had become so messy again after being so well put together and organized meeting the rubies. Peridot couldn't help but get nervous and blush lightly.

"Err. Sorry." Peridot said looking away.

Lapis' expression could only be described as that of wide-eyed surprise. She saw Peridot turn away with a light blush on her face and apologizing. Lapis scooped Peridot up, summoned her wings and quickly landed the both of them in their hammock. Lapis was lying down in her standard outstretched position hands fitting comfortably behind her head. Peridot was lying next to her, shoulder pressed against Lapis' side, holding her hands on top of her body.

"You don't have to do anything alone if you don't want to." Lapis stated very sincerely, eyes closed not looking towards her hammock-mate.

"Of course, Lapis! That's the whole point of this exercise we are currently engaging in!" Peridot shot up her arms for emphasis before returning them to their position on top of her body.

There was a moment of silence. Everything seemed to stand still.

"So…how does this work?"

The question pierced the peacefulness of the situation. Lapis' eyes were now fully open and she looked notably uncertain.

"I don't really know. I've only done it once and it was after everything happened."

Lapis looked off in the distance while Peridot looked up at her barn mate.

"I'm sorry if what Amethyst said earlier brought back any bad memories."

Lapis side glanced Peridot who was looking up at her with shimmering eyes.

"It's okay."

Lapis turned back to the green gem and let her arms flail to either side of the hammock.

"It wasn't really what she said. If anything it's the form she decided to say it in."

Lapis closes her eyes and breathes in deeply thinking about Amethyst in her Jasper form and watching it slowly transition to it just being Jasper in her mind. Lapis was rapidly broken from her trance by a pair of Green arms wrapping around her form. She looked down at Peridot who was brimming with excitement!

"LAPISLAPISLAPISLAPISLAPIS!"

Peridot squirmed her way closer to Lapis' face.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU!"

"You don't have to yell. I'm right here." Lapis responded neutrally, relatively used to Peridot's seemingly random bursts of enthusiasm.

"BACK AT THE BETA KINDER-" Peridot Started, only to receive a bit of a warning look form Lapis. Peridot stopped and took a deep breathe before going back at it.

"gartenwhenweweretotallyfightingJaspershebecamecorruptedandtriedattackingStevenAmethystandmyselfbutItotallypoofedherwithmymetalpowers!"

Lapis simply looked on in astonishment. Her eyes widened at hearing the story. Peridot looked at her barn mate in eager anticipation, waiting for her to respond in some way. She waited for what seemed like forever and in that time Peri took time to backtrack what she said when a chill went down her spine.

"L-Lapis, I didn't mean to say the J-wor-"

Lapis didn't say anything.

She simply reciprocated Peridot's actions and wrapped her slender blue arms around the petite green gem's body and pulled her closer.

"I know you didn't do it for me, necessarily, Peridot."

Lapis' grip tightened. Peridot's face was engulfed by a deep blush which reached underneath her visor.

"But thank you."

"You're…welcome."

Peridot felt the heat from her face dissipate slightly.

" _Wow! Thanks!"_

She exclaimed this quietly under her breathe, but Lapis caught it and smirked.

Peridot's eyelids started drooping a little.

"Y'know, I think I might understand how this sleep thing works now."

Peridot said this with an apparent amount of sleep starting to take over her voice.

Lapis perked up.

"Oh, what's that?"

"I understand that humans use it to recharge their en-…energy."

Peridot yawns, nuzzling deeper into Lapis torso.

"But I think the…true benefits of this…restoration activity are truly lost unless you have someone to share it with."

Lapis kept staring down at the green gem. Her eyes now completely closed, but she's still talking.

"I'm glad...to be learning about this…together with you, Lapissssssssss."

Peridot carried out the final "s" in Lapis' name for a while in a low hum until she eventually stopped and the only sound she was making was the low methodic hums of her breathing against Lapis' body.

Lapis really couldn't believe where she found herself right now. She was lying in a hammock, holding the sleeping form of Peridot in the middle of the night in a barn millions of miles away from the place she originally considered home.

Yet she was the most comfortable she'd ever been.

Lapis nuzzled her head onto Peridot's hair, which was surprisingly comfortable.

"Maybe it'll be different this time."

With that Lapis let her eyelids falls and soon joined Peridot in her rhythmic breathing. Their torsos going back and forth, together, like a dance.


	2. Day two: Art (Meep morp) school AU

**We'll Do It Together**

 **Day two (17th): Art (meep morp) School AU**

Lapis Lazuli snapped awake. Her eyes fully open and quickly casting themselves on the sleeping form next to her.

Peridot was still there.

Peridot was still asleep.

Lapis breathed a sigh of relief. She brought the hand she had draped over Peridot's body to her face and rubbed her exhausted features before letting said hand droop over the side of the hammock. Lapis looked out towards the entrance to their barn. The tarp they used for a door was covering most of the view but she could tell it was still well into the night. She looked down at the tired green form still clinging to her. A line of drool was streaming down one of the corners of her mouth and more to Lapis' surprise Peridot was actually quite the snorer when she slept. It was a high-pitched, nasally snore. It fit her just well.

"I don't understand how Steven is able to do that every night." Lapis whispered to herself as to not disturb her peacefully sleeping barn mate.

"Or maybe it's just me. That would make more sense."

Lapis raised her hand to her face and started rubbing the bridge of her nose.

" _It's so hard to know what's real and fake when you're sleeping."_ Lapis though to herself while she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

Lapis suddenly felt Peridot's tiny form move from Lapis' body and outstretch itself on as much of the hammock as possible. Peridot's right arm is still underneath Lapis, while her right leg now drapes over her. Her left leg and arm are draped over the side of the hammock and her head is facing forward positioned right in front of an empty stretch of the ceiling. Lapis' attention was brought to one thing in particular, though.

Peridot's gem started glowing with an incandescent light.

The light from her gem then projected outwards onto the empty slice of ceiling Peridot's features have been facing towards.

" _What do you have going on, Peri?"_

The light shooting out of Peridot's gem created a triangular shaped light on the ceiling and suddenly images started appearing in the shape. The familiar noise of a warp pad echoes throughout the barn.

"Wow! I can't believe Steven's dad paid for us to attend Meep morp school!" exclaimed an unseen but familiar voice from the projection. The view of the projection was simply showing a simple metal arch which read "meep morp" school. In the distance there were myriads of different people all walking around, sketching, sculpting and doing anything and everything.

Lapis was staring up at the flashing images with sheer awe, opting to watch how this played out. She stayed silent as the images moved flawlessly in the triangular view provided by Peridot's gem.

"Yeah. It was nice of him. Considering I broke his leg." Another familiar voice chimed in.

"And after I pushed him off of our barn."

"And after destroying his boat."

"You destroyed his boat?!"

After the last voice chimed in we finally get to see the main characters, a familiar, enthusiastic, small, green gem and an indifferent, taller, blue gem. Peridot and Lapis (of course).

"So where are we supposed to go?" Lapis asked, assuming her neutral face but quirking an eyebrow at the scene playing out in front of them.

"Let me check!" Peridot shouts loud than necessary as she brings a cheeseburger backpack out from behind her. She unzips one of the pockets and pulls out her tablet which she fastens to her right wrist. Peridot holds down the power button until the screen lights up and she begins tittering away on the touch screen.

"You're not just going to have it float beside you like at home?"

"Of course not! We may be among fellow meep morps, Lapis, but who knows what they might do if I just have my things floating around me!"

"If you say so, so where are we going anyway?"

Peridot types away on her tablet.

"According to this message which was gifted to me personally by the internet itself, we need to be at this location in ten minutes." Peridot pointed at her tablet's GPS marker.

Peridot gasped incredulously.

"But it's going to take us 30 minutes to get there!"

Peridot began overreacting to this predicament in classic Peridot fashion causing Lapis to snort loudly and laugh at her evident overreaction.

"Maybe it will take you 30 minutes."

Lapis summons her water wings.

"But I'll get there in no time."

Lapis ascends into the air elegantly and quickly darts off from a scrambling Peridot who is following behind running as fast as she can.

"Lapis, wait! That's the wrong wa-"

Peridot falls on her face causing Lapis to snort and laugh while fluttering in the air. Inevitably lead Lapis to turn around to help her small green gem.

 **~Ten minutes later~**

Peridot and Lapis are seen descending from the sky. Lapis carrying Peridot with her hands underneath Peridot's arms. As soon as Peridot's feet touched the ground she started running off towards the building in front of her.

"We are running late!" Peridot shrieked out.

"You need to relax, Peri. We're just going to be making meep morps or something, right?"

"I think so…I don't actually know what we got ourselves into."

Peridot and Lapis enter in through the big double doors in front of them and on either side of them are rows of classrooms, each labeled with a number.

"Room 209…" Peridot recited to no one in particular while looking down at her tablet.

Lapis looked up at the room numbers, noting they were at the one they needed to go to. She grabbed Peridot by the arm as she had been too distracted with her tablet to even look up and see the room number.

"We're here." Lapis stated evenly.

"You ready?"

"Sure, whatever."

The duo enters the classroom in front of them. It was a huge lecture hall style. There were hundreds of other people in the classroom.

"What are we supposed to do?" Lapis asked slightly annoyed and the general hum of noise floating around the lecture hall.

"Let's find a seat! I can't believe all of these people are here to make meep morps." Peridot replied, semi-excited. Lapis smiled in response and let herself get led by the hand by Peridot towards two seats a few rows up from the center stage.

"I wonder what they'll have for making meep morps here." Peridot practically bouncing her seat with anticipation.

"Hmmmmm." Was all Lapis could deliver in response.

Suddenly the entire lecture hall went silent. Peridot and Lapis looked down at where all of the focus was. Peridot and Lapis saw a pale, middle-aged man hold a large binder underneath his arm make his way to a lectern. The man stopped at the lectern and popped the book from underneath his arm onto the lectern. He then took a piece of chalk and began writing on the board behind him, it read "Professor Boxer". The man then turned back to his lectern and opened up his binder, looking down, coughing briefly then speaking.

"Thank you, everyone, for joining me in Modern Meep Morp for this semester. I'm Professor Boxer, now if you'll take out your syllabuses and turn to page one we can begin."

Peridot and Lapis faces' were completely dumbstruck.

"What…What is he even saying?" Peridot questioned.

"I don't know."

They both look around the lecture hall around them. Everyone is simply looking at pieces of paper while the man up front is droning on and on.

"Where are the meep morps?" Peridot inquired more to herself than anyone.

"I don't know, but I'm going to go ask that human up front." Lapis stated, summoning her water wings and flying out of her seat towards the professor.

"Lapis, wait!" Peridot whisper-yelled out. No one notice that however as they were all far too distracted by Lapis' flying in the middle of the lecture hall and landing next to the professor who was more than in awe at what he just witnessed, to say the least.

"Excuse me, miss! This may be the first time I have ever said this but the sentiment is still strong- please do not interrupt the class by… _flying_ …in the middle of a lecture. It's very distracting to the class and most importantly it is very distracting for me."

The older man said this to the Blue gem in front of him. Her face screamed, "what are you even saying".

"When do start making the meep morps?"

The professor huffed in response.

"Miss, you can't just make morps whenever you want. To perfect the craft of making meep morps to the point of making it a viable career takes years of study and practice. Years of study and practice means attending this prestigious university and attending this university means you need to take my class and listen to me or you will fail. Do you want to fail?"

Lapis' featured immediately strained after hearing this man speak.

"So you're saying all I'm allowed to do is sit here and listen to you? I can't make morps?"

"Not in my class."

Lapis summoned her water wings and turned around the rows of students in the lecture hall and faced towards Peridot.

"Peridot. I can't stay here. I'll be outside if you need me."

Lapis floated over to the door, opening it and flying outside of the room. It was at this point all eyes were on Peridot, who was nervously looking around the room. Beads of sweat were trailing down her face and visor and her mouth was in a distinct turtle frown. It was at this point Peridot stood up and starting descending down the stair, walking past the dozens of pairs of eyes staring at her. She finally made it to the door. Peridot opened it but took a quick glance around at the crowds of people still eyeballing her. She looked at the professor who was also staring her down. Peridot quickly exited the room, continue down the hallway she trailed just minutes ago before finally reaching the double doors leading outside. She pushed the doors open and scanned the environment around her.

"Lapis!"

No response.

"Laaaaaaaaaaaapis, are you out here."

Still no response.

Peridot walking a bit away from the building, she scanned around herself again. She looked up in the sky.

No sight of her.

Peridot then turned her gaze to a happy medium and checked the roof of the building they were just in and sure enough she was lying on the roof, eyes closed and distinctly frowning.

"Hey, Lapis! Can you come down here." Peridot yelled up and Lapis perked, finally noting her.

Lapis summoned her water wings and very easily floated down to the ground.

"So that was a little unexpected." Peridot jested.

Lapis crossed her arms defensively.

"I just didn't like feeling trapped. I thought when we came here we would just be doing what we were doing at the barn-"

"Humans tend to make everything needlessly complicated." Peridot interrupted.

"It's hard to understand why they feel the need to make even meep morps complicated but do you wanna know something?"

Peridot grabbed Lapis' hands and held them between hers.

"What?"

"We can still make Meep morps whenever we want. And I think we should even make some right here, right now."

Lapis' eyes started glimmering before she nodded her head, face brimming with determination.

The next couple of hours were spent with the duo making myriads of meep morps on the fly if their choosing. Stacking bundles of trash cans from around the school. Taking random articles of clothing from various other students around the school campus and tying them at various points on a flagpole. Then they decided to end their meep morp spree with their masterpieces. Twin statues of each other. Peridot made a metal statue of Lapis and placed in next to a large fountain in the middle of the school's courtyard, while Lapis made a proportionally-sized Ice Peridot next to the metal Lapis.

It was at this point there were a fair number of Campus security officers approaching Peridot and Lapis.

"Going up?" Peridot asked.

"Going up." Lapis responded grabbing Peridot while summoning her water wings, propelling them both into the sky and flying off towards the sunset.

"This has been a really nice day, Lapis."

"It has."

Peridot looked back at the school.

"We're never coming back here again."

"Agreed."

With that, the projection coming out of Peridot's head suddenly stopped. Lapis was shaken out of her trance of watching the dream by its sudden ending. She looked down at Peridot to make sure everything was alright. Only to see her eyes blinking awake.

Peridot didn't say anything. Instead she just looked over to a nearby pile of materials in the barn and put out her hand. She lifted her tablet out of the pile and started pulling it towards her. Lapis didn't say anything, she just let it happen.

The tablet finally reached Peridot's hands.

 _HELLO INTERNET, I'M BACK! QUICK UPDATE:_

 _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH_

 _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH_

 _AAAAAHHHHH_

 _AAH_

 _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH._

 _AND THAT'S WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON!_

Peridot finished logging her thoughts on the internet and set her tablet down. She turned towards Lapis and gave a big smile.

"Hey there Lapis! How'd you sleep?"


	3. Day Three: Stars and Stargazing

**We'll Do It Together**

 **Day Three (18th):** stars/stargazing

 ** _~A few days later~_**

"Steven asked me if I wanted to tag along with him and the other gems to the Beta Kindergarten to get all of the monsters out of it, do you want to join?"

Peridot questioned her blue gem roommate who was currently reading something entitled "Pretty Hairstylist".

Lapis simply replied with a shake of her head while turning a page continuing to read.

"Alright. I should be back in no time. Are you going to be okay?"

Lapis nodded her head, delivering a thumbs up to tack on a little extra understanding.

"Okay."

Peridot takes off her red bow tie.

"Coming your way!"

She throws her bow tie and Lapis tries dispassionately to grab while not taking her eyes off of her book. Peridot jumps down to the lower level of the barn, landing with a hard thud. Peridot looks up towards the upper level of the barn really quickly before finally making her way outside of the barn.

Lapis is still incredibly enamored with her reading but couldn't help but note the distinct hum of a warp pad activating off in the distance.

" _Well, there she goes again."_

Lapis thought to herself while she turned to the next page of her book. She really didn't understand why she was so enthralled by what she was reading, but Lapis had been learning a lot about herself during her time on earth.

Things she would have never even thought of if she was back on Homeworld.

Things she would have never even tried to attempt if it wasn't for her roommate.

If it wasn't for Peridot.

It seems like only yesterday Steven had convinced her to stay on Earth and more specifically in the barn and Lapis had been met with the unfortunate news she would be sharing her residence with her.

With Peridot.

" _And now here I am."_

Lapis thought as she turned another page. Night had finally come to pass some time while Lapis was reading.

 _"I wonder where she is? I didn't think she'd be out this late."_

Lapis would be lying if she didn't enjoy some time alone. After everything that happened to her involving Malachite, interacting with people became exhausting in its own way.

More often than not Lapis was glad to always have someone else here with her. Too much time alone would start to remind her of the time she spent imprisoned in the mirror.

Lapis Lazuli was a walking mess of contradictions and she knew it. Having people be there for her had helped her realize that it was okay to feel the way she did.

Steven has always been a source of comfort since their first encounter.

And lately, Peridot has grown on her more than she liked to admit.

A LOT MORE than she'd like to admit.

Lapis turns another page.

She doesn't want anybody to rely on her like they did back in the day. Back long before she was imprisoned in the mirror. She doesn't want to let anyone in close enough or they're just going to end up shattered or gone.

But that's just how it was with Lapis and she knew it.

The morning was in full swing outside and Lapis had hardly moved from this one spot. She hadn't stopped reading since Peridot left but she also never had her full attention on what she was reading. This made progress in the book quite slow.

Lapis was starting to become concerned.

A subtle _vhip_ pierced the still barn air. Lapis glanced to her right quite quickly noting there was now a green bubble with a gem inside of it floating in the middle of the barn.

" _Looks like something I should ask Peridot about later."_

Lapis thought, comforted by the sight of the bubble and finally returning her full attention to her book.

More time had passed and for the first time since Peridot had left Lapis was able to focus and keep Peri off her mind.

Lapis turned to the last page of her book, scanning down the last sentences she was finally able to shut the book and set it down next to the chair that had been her home for the past several hours.

The familiar whir of a warp pad resounded off in the distance.

 _"There she is!"_

Lapis had surprised herself. She sounded a little more excited in her head than she would normally. Lapis shook her head, dismissing that there was anything wrong with this occurrence.

She waited for her roommate's usual enthusiastic greeting.

But it never came.

Instead, Lapis heard the familiar sound of Peridot trying to get to their truck-bed balcony. The sound of her feet clanging against metal as she tried to balance herself on the garbage can lid she used as an elevator. The click of the truck door and follow-up clanging of the garbage can lid on the Barn floor below meant she had made it to her destination.

"I better go check on her." Lapis stated.

She summoned her water wings, but before flying off to her destination Lapis picked up Peridot's red bow tie. She floated down gracefully to the first floor then rocketed out of the front entrance of the barn and floating up and landing into the truck bed loft next to Peridot who was fiddling with the TV trying to put in a new Camp Pining Hearts DVD.

"Did you forget something?"

Peridot's hair stood on end, more from surprise than anything, then she turned around to only see her red bow tie hitting her in the face. Peridot didn't get annoyed or really react to this at all as if she had done this more than a couple times before. She picked up the red bow tie carrying a neutral expression and slapping the bow tie to her chest, and so it stuck.

"Wow, thanks!" came out almost instinctually from the Green gem's mouth as she continued to fiddle with the TV on their balcony.

Lapis at this point had chosen to settle in her usual spot on their truck-balcony watching as a kneeled over Peridot was working to get their TV to play their favorite show.

Lapis decided to speak up, not taking her eyes off the green gem as she worked.

"You came in rather quiet today. That's unlike you."

Peridot finished putting in the DVD and sat back down next to Lapis and let the DVD play out.

"It's been a _rocky_ day."

Peridot let out a couple of Nyeh hyeh heyh's in response to her pun.

"I don't understand."

The Camp Pining Heart's theme starts playing at the main menu of the DVD. Peridot goes to play the DVD put Lapis stops her.

"Peridot- what's going on?"

Lapis voice wavered a little from the genuine sympathy coming out of her mouth. Peridot scratched the back of her head before lying back and looking up the stars. Lapis chose to stay silent. She was never the one to try and push conversation.

Why start now?

"You know you can see homeworld's glalaxy from here."

Lapis looked down to her roommate. She was still intently focused on the stars above. The skyline was beautiful from the barn. The night sky was filled with all sorts of stars and various celestial bodies.

The sky was cloudless.

It was a great night for stargazing.

"It's right there." Peridot pointed towards the skyline. The stars in the night sky all looked the same to the untrained eye, but Peridot saw what she was talking to.

And with only a single look, so did Lapis. Lapis had known about the ability to see Homeworld's galaxy from the barn the first night she stayed at the barn. It was the only thing she could look at when she would star gaze for the past several weeks.

"Today went alright. Aside from the various incidents involving rocks falling on me and crushing me nearly to poofing- it was an experience."

Lapis was hanging on every word Peridot was saying. It was a rare time to see Peridot so…serious.

"And honestly at the end of the day it got me thinking about Homeworld. It got me thinking about where we come from. It got me to thinking about how much has changed."

"Everything has been moving really fast, at least since I've been here."

Lapis felt a small pressure on her hand. She took her eyes from the stars above and turned to see Peridot's hand grabbing a hold of Lapis' very delicately.

"Earth never really stops moving. Things are always changing, and that's why I'm glad I have things that keep me grounded. Things that I like which remind me why I love Earth so much. It's why I love Camp Pining hearts, meep morps and why I love-"

Peridot paused for a moment.

"- having someone to share it all with."

Peridot blushed lightly at her last statement, feeling her face heating up in response to her own words.

"People are always changing too." Lapis said squirming her hand in Peridot's grip and interlocking her fingers in Peridot's.

"That's a more than accurate statement." Peridot responded, only taking glances down at her and Lapis' interlocked hands her blushing deepening while Lapis only smirked.

There was a strong silence between the two gems at this point. Both of them just continued to stare up at the skyline. Peridot darting around at the entire skyline possible while Lapis kept her vision focused on Homeworld's galaxy. Not taking her eyes off of it, as if it was beacon she needed to follow.

"Do you ever miss it, Peri?"

Peridot's nervous trance was suddenly broken as she turned towards Lapis.

"Huh?"

"Do you ever miss Homeworld?"

Peridot looked up towards Homeworld's galaxy, matching Lapis' gaze towards the distant galaxy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Peridot saw three seperate shooting stars making their way down to Earth. Two appeared to be dying out quite quickly but one seemed to be in it for the long haul. Peridot shook herself out of her trance only to see Lapis waiting for her answer.

"I do. Quite often, actually."

"Do you ever wish you could do something different. Just one thing different in your life that way you wouldn't be here? That way you could go back home.

There was no response.

Lapis took her gaze off of the stars and faced Peridot. Her line-of-sight never broke. Peridot shed a tear from her eye due to whatever she was thinking. She placed her fingers underneath her visor and wiped away the tear she shed.

"No."

Lapis looked a little surprised at the green gem's response.

"Really?"

"In my time spent on Earth. From when I was running away from the crystal gems to this very moment in time right now, made me realize something very important about myself."

Lapis didn't say anything, opting to wait for Peridot to continue.

"I'm happier here than I ever was back on homeworld. I'm happier doing what I am doing now than I ever was doing my work for Homeworld."

Peridot squeezed Lapis' hand and let a stream of tears from both of her eyes.

"I'm happier because I am actually me. I'm not what Homeworld wants me to be, I'm what I want to be."

Lapis' eyes started shimmering.

"P-Peridot."

Peridot looked at Lapis, tears still streaming from her eyes. Peridot moved to take off her visor but quickly wiping her face with her free arm and subsequently reattaching her visor not even giving a hint of what she looks like without her visor on.

"I'm really glad you decided to stay, Lapis. Having someone else here really makes our barn feel like home."

Peridot gave Lapis a sincere, small smile.

"Speaking of our home, I had a question."

Peridot's smile immediately quirked into confusion.

"About what?"  
"There's this green bubble in the barn. Does that have something to do with you?"

Peridot feel backwards at the very mention of the bubble.

"YOU MEAN IT'S HERE?!"

"Yeah, here-" Lapis summoned her wings and picked up Peridot.

"Lemme show you."

Lapis loop de looped into the entrance of the barn and quickly rose up to the second floor, which was sparse compared to the downstairs, but sure enough right next to the chair Lapis spent the greater part of her day in there was a lime green bubbled containing the wily gem monster Peri took down all by herself. Peridot broke out of Lapis' grasp and ran up to the bubble, pointing at it excitedly.

"It is here! Lapis look!"

"Believe me, I saw it."

Lapis' tired smile returned.

"I defeated it all by myself!"

Peridot declared this triumphantly, Lapis simply quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, okay. Steven helped. But at the end it was me and this creature falling to what seemed like our doom when KERSPLAT!"

Peridot lowered her body for effect.

"We hit the ground, but I stood back up with my body intact and wrapped this bubble around the creature, sending it home."

"Seems like you really did find a home away from Homeworld, Peri." Lapis stated briefly.

"There was only one thing that's bugging me about this."

Peridot started pacing around the top floor of the barn with Lapis crossing her arms and simply observing the green gem deduce.

"I know I consider the general barn area to definitely be my home away from Homeworld, so why, with all of this area the bubble could have chosen to appear in, did it appear here."

Peridot used her hands to gesture to the general vicinity the bubble was in.

"I dunno. I was just up here reading-"

"Wait!"

Peridot threw both of her hands up, turning towards Lapis.

"You were up here?"

"Yes. I spent pretty much the entire time you were gone up here, actually."

"I see." Peridot crossed one arm across her body and placed a hand underneath her chin thoughtfully.

"Why did you want to know?"

"No reason." Peridot said quietly, watching Lapis pace up to the bubble and eye it curiously before grabbing it in her hand and throwing it back and forth.

" _Just trying to figure out where my home is."_ Peridot thought as Lapis placed the bubble back where it was floating, turning around and giving Peridot a genuine, toothy smile.

Peridot could feel her heart drop.


	4. Day Four: How Far We've Come (Free Day)

**Thank you, everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited and been with me on this journey of Lapidot week 2016 so far. It's been a very rad experience! Four more days to go, let's DOOOOOOOOOOOO IT!**

* * *

 **We'll Do It Together**

 **Day Four (19th):** How far we've come (free day)

 ** _~About a week later~_**

The warp pad nearest to the barn sounds off, and in its light appears the familiar shape of Steven. He looks off into the distance of where the barn is.

"Might as well check in on these two again since everyone else is busy today."

Steven then starts, for a lack of better phrasing. 'Hulk-jumping' his way towards the barn. Within a few mere leaps, the barn is easily within sight. It's disorganized beauty a sight to behold, at least in Steven's eyes because it meant two people he cared about very much growing close and learning to live together, and at the end of the day that is really all Steven could ask for.

A few more Leaps and Steven is in reasonable walking distance of the barn, so he opts to just walk the rest of the way there.

"I wonder if these two have anything new going on. Everything they showed me and Amethyst last time was so cool!"

Steven finally makes it to the front entrance of the barn. Peridot and Lapis are not in their truck-bed balcony watching Camp Pining Hearts, much to Steven's surprise.

 _"Glad to see those two aren't completely obsessing over that show. I thought I'd never get Peridot to stop watching that one episode."_ Steven thought.

"Peridot! Lapis!"

Steven's yells fell on deaf ears.

"Maybe they're not home?" Steven said walking through the entrance of the barn.

Everything in the Barn looked about the same from where it was the last time Steven visited. All of their "meep morps" were still exactly as they left them. The instruments from Peri's solo were even still on the ground at the entrance of the Barn.

"Maybe they're upstairs?"

Steven jumped up to the second floor of the barn. He quickly noticed a Peridot with her arms raised in the air, currently trying to bend thin metal bars into an unknown shape, and in the distance was Lapis Lazuli standing with one arm held behind her body and the other thrust into the air with her palm facing towards the sky as if she were holding something.

"Oh, hey you guys!"

"Hey, Steven!" Lapis summons her water wings and goes to move-

"W-w-wait! Lapis. I need you to stay still."

Lapis' face contorted into indignity, with her arms crossed.

"Peridot you had me standing here for hours, not only that but you look exhausted."

Peridot tried to respond, but her tired features and the beads of sweat running down her face would say otherwise. Lapis flies over to Peridot first.

"Let's just take a break for a moment, okay?"

Peridot is still trying to unsuccessfully bend a specific piece of metal but after a few more moments of labor, Peridot relented dropping her arms to her sides and looking up at Lapis very tiredly but with a small smile on her face.

"You're right."

Lapis laughed lightly in return.

Steven couldn't help himself.

"Awwwwwe, you guys!"

The two barn mates look towards Steven.

"What?" they say in unison.

"You guys are soooo close now. It just makes me really happy to see you both getting along so well."

The two gems look at each other, before laughing their respective laughs.

"We have you to thank for that, Steven."

"Yes. Both for the living arrangements and for convincing us both to stay on Earth!" Peridot said adding in a finger for the dramatics.

"I mean sure, I helped you guys get here but at the end of the day everything that is happening is all because of you two and what you're doing for each other!"

Steven ran up to his friends and pulled them both into a hug. Lapis and Peridot quickly reacted by wrapping their respective limbs around the boy. Peridot felt Lapis' hand on hers on the other side of Steven's body, causing her to blush lightly. Steven let his friends go and started surveying the second floor of the barn. Steven took note of Peridot's bubble, but the bigger picture here is that Peridot's bubble was much further up and appeared to be held up by a metal hand and statue just to the right of it.

"So what exactly are you guys doing right now?"

"You see Steven. After our fateful journey in the Beta Kindergarten several days ago when I, the Great and loveable Peridot vanquished her mighty foe with great ease."

Steven and Lapis couldn't help but laugh, but they tried not to interrupted Peridot's dramatics.

"After such, I bubbled her gem and it appeared here near Lapis."

Steven looked to Lapis for assurance, and sure enough, she gave a nod of approval.

"So then we got to thinking. What do we do with this bubble? And then it came to us in the thick of the night."

"Meep morp." Lapis said neutrally.

"YES! So then we started thinking of ideas for a meep morp to feature my mighty accomplishment through and it was here Lapis actually came up with the perfect morp!

Steven looked towards Lapis with starry eyes, causing Lapis to blush slightly.

"Uhmm. Well. The morps were just going to be giant versions of us. Peridot was going to make a morp of me out of metal holding up the bubble and I going to make one out of ice when she was done."

"Yes! It represents how our bonds make us stronger and allow us to accomplish things we weren't able to do before! "

"It's also our barn, so it only makes sense the meep morps would be us."

"Also a viable course of explanation, Lapis!" Peridot pointed at Lapis for emphasis.

"Wow, you guys! That's so cool. How did you get that idea?"

"I saw it in Peridot's dreams."

Lapis said this so blatantly and quickly it took Steven off guard who then looked at Peridot whose confidence didn't look shaken.

"Yeah. Her dreams project out of her gem."

"And at the end of the day, it only makes sense that this is the origin of such a magnificent meep morp! I'm just ashamed that I didn't think of it sooner!"

"I guess it also applies to the morp? Since her dream came up with the morp and I helped remind her of it?"

Peridot and Lapis look towards each other and laugh.

"Wow! I just can't believe you guys have gotten this close, this fast. I wish I could have seen it happening but things got a little crazy in Beach City with Restaurant Wars and what not-"

Steven stopped to look at the two gems and they are eyeing him in confusion.

"I just wish I could have seen it."

"Steven!" Peridot ran up and grabbed one of Steven's Arms.

"That can be arranged!"

Peridot throws her arms out towards a pile on the second floor of the barn and out pops her tablet. Peridot slowly windmilled her right arm backwards causing the tablet to come towards here, once within range she grabbed a hold of it and turned it on.

"I documented much of our journey after Lapis returned from her adventures with you the other day."

Lapis' face didn't seem to change much upon hearing this although Steven grew notably awkward at the mention of the venture.

"Wait! Is everyone else with you? They'd probably love to see this!"

Lapis eyed Peridot curiously, she was fine with the Crystal Gems- especially lately but she wasn't necessarily comfortable airing all of her personal business out to everyone.

"No. It's just me today. Amethyst said she was going to sleep a couple of days straight after everything that happened. Pearl was on a mission. Garnet was pretty, surprisingly, but she simply said she wants to 'let what happens, happen.'. Not really sure what all of that meant but I'm still here!"

"Alright. Get ready for my superior documentation!"

Peridot presses a button on her screen reading 'slideshow' and a video begins loading. When it loads we see a wide shot of the rainy countryside next to the barn with two fingers covering parts of the screen on either side.

"Alright. I'm currently trying to document my ascent up to the top of the silo where I saw Lazuli fly to after her time with Steven today. She looked rather downtrodden so I'm going to see if there is anything I can do since we have formed something akin to a friendship since our initial encounter!"

The camera shot starts slowly rising off of the ground, albeit very shakily. Causing the video to blur greatly.

"I usually use a trashcan lid to get up here. It's- wooooooooahwoah!"

The next sound heard in the sound of a hard thud.

"Ow."

That video stops, Steven and Lapis are laughing while Peridot is a little less so, the next video quickly loads and everyone starts tuning in once again. The camera is pointed towards a despondent Lapis look out across the countryside from her vantage point, seemingly unaware of Peridot's existence.

"Okay! So this time, I decided to start recording after I got to the top of the barn silo as to devote all of my focus to use the trash can lid to get up here! I'm now going to approach Lazuli and see if I can get to the root of her bad feelings!"

The camera starts inching closer to Lapis, still, she remains unaware of Peridot.

"Laz? Hey, Lazuli. I know it may not really be my place to ask, but are you doing okay. You seem like your feelings have been hurt and if you want to talk about it, I'm here."

Lapis' head fell and her shoulder rose defensively in response.

"Laz?"

Lapis turned around suddenly and just as suddenly the camera shot turned towards an empty shot of the roof of the silo, but after a moment the camera lifted back up Lapis had moved considerably closer to Peridot. The features on her face were exhausted and her eyes were shimmering with emotions. She wasn't crying, or at least if she was it was hidden by the rainy countryside.

"L-Laz?"

Lapis' arms shoot out from either side of her and quickly envelope Peridot's figure and force the camera into Lapis' torso, and getting a really up close shot of the Diamond part of her crop-top. The video then transitions to the inside of the barn. The camera shot was still littered with rain drops.

"Although I was not allowed to document anything that just happened I can say with absolute certainty that this was a very productive conversation! So productive, in fact, that the rain stopped and the sun is out. Lapis is also currently resting in the chair in the loft of the barn."

Peridot slammed her first into her other hand.

"Also, I will from this point on be referring to her as Lapis as opposed to Lazuli as per her request!"

The video ends and the next one starts loading.

"Why did you ask her to start calling you Lapis instead of Lazuli?"

Lapis casually shrugs off Steven's question, and Steven decides to let it go.

The next video loads.

"Okay, is it recording?" Peridot asked, onscreen.

"Yes." Lapis replied neutrally, her blue fingers now poking out from either side of the screen.

"Alright! As you can see, Lapis and I are outside. And here we have the barn silo."

Lapis starts panning the camera off into the vast distances of the countryside.

"And with my awesome control over the element of-Lapis! Are you documenting this correctly?"

Lapis immediately pointed the camera back at Peridot.

"Huh? Yeah, sure."

"Okay-" Peridot coughs. "I will move this whole silo with my awesome control over metal! And when I move it, I'm going to use it to plug up that hole in the barn I have neglected to fix."

"Are you ready Lapis!?"

"Yes." Lapis replied again.

Peridot then turned her back to the camera and put her arms out in front of her. She then started Lifting her arms in the air, tensing up her muscles all the way up.

"NYaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Peridot cried out.

Futilely.

She let her arms drop to either side and kneeled down on the ground.

"I may…Have bitten off…more than…I could handle." Peridot said between breaths.

"Hey Peridot, I think I have an idea- but you have to trust me."

"Sure. I'll try anything."

The video transitions to the same spot, with Peridot standing in front of the silo less confidently than before.

"Lapis, I'm not so sure about this."

"Just trust me, you can do it this time."

"Okaay." Peridot turned around to the silo and took in a deep breathe.

Peridot lifted her arms up exactly as she had before, the strain in her muscles, obvious.

And unlike before the silo rose from the ground, slowly but surely following Peridot's hands as the rose further and further up into the air.

"LAPISLAPISLAPISLAPIS! I'MDOINGIT!"

Peridot turned the silo slowly and carefully, it gave her a little resistance consider the silo had pipes connected to the ground, but soon enough those were ripped out along with the entire silo and Peridot suddenly started walking the entirety of the Silo towards the barn.

"NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH! I AM YOUR MASTER SILO!"

Lapis couldn't help but laugh from behind the camera.

"Okay, now here comes the hard part. I have to slip the silo delicately into the hole. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand-"

The silo crashes into the hole of the barn, but it falls in crookedly. Peridot lets go of her focus.

"YES!"

Peridot throws her arms into the air.

"I AM VICTORIOUS!"

"Lapis. You were right. When we filled the silo with water it made it a lot easier to carry!"

You can hear Lapis giggle from behind the camera.

"Scientifically, that should be impossible, but who knows, Earth is strange."

"Yes, it is." Although Lapis can't be seen, you can hear the smile on her face when she talked. The next several seconds were Peridot celebrating moving the silo before the video cut out.

The next one began loading.

"I still have no idea how that worked, but I'm just glad that it did."

Steven turned towards Lapis who simply put a finger to her lips, Steven nodded in confirmation.

The next video loads.

"Hey, Lapis! I'm about to start watching _Camp Pining Hearts_. Do you want to watch it with me!?"

The camera shot points towards Lapis, a little green finger in the top right corner of the shot.

"What. What it that?" Lapis replied, lifting her focus up from a book she had in her hands which read 'Pretty Hairstylist volume #1'.

"It's this really great Earth TV show. Steven showed it to me a while ago and I thought you might like it!"

Lapis looked down at her book, then back to Peridot. She set her book down and summoned her water wings. Flying out of the camera shot. Peridot trailed Lapis' path until she finally landed next to Peridot on the couch they kept in the loft of the barn.

"Let's see it."

Peridot's eyes went starry.

"I promise you won't regret it."

The camera quickly moves towards the small tv on the ground. We see a small green hand shove a DVD into the DVD player of the TV.

The video transitions and all we see is Lapis cross-legged on the floor, right in front of theTV intently focusing on it. Peridot, right next to her pointing the camera at her.

"We're 96 hours into _Camp Pining Hearts._ Lapis. How are feeling about it?"

"I love this show. I love this show so much and I don't even know why."

The video ends. The next one starts to load.

"It's just so good. It's hard to explain." Lapis piped in.

The next video loads.

The first thing we see is Peridot standing center screen and she is wearing her red bow tie. Surprisingly, there are now fingers blocking any parts of the camera.

"Welcome, everybody. As Lapis and I introduce you to the world of Meep morp. Now you may be questioning yourself, Peridot- What is a meep morp."

Peridot moves to her left and reveals a sculpture consisting of her broken tape recorder strung up on three small rods. The tape leaning against one of the rods. There is a blue ribbon attached to the top.

"I call this Morp 'Wow, Thanks.'. It represents the struggles of intercommunication. The tape is the ribbon that binds Lapis and I's experience on earth together."

Peridot pauses.

"It has no functional purpose! It just make me _feel bad._ "

Peridot recollects herself.

"That's all I have so far, but Lapis has been morping as well- Lapis! Show them."

Peridot does some minor hand gestures and the camera pans over to the right and we see Lapis standing next to a big pile of mud with a leaf sticking out of it. Lapis' expression is mostly blank.

"This is a leaf. From the time Steven gave me a leaf."

There is clapping in the background.

"Lapis! That was so good!"

We see the green gem run into view of the camera and hug Lapis, Lapis let this happen with little resistance, blushing lightly.

"Wow, thanks." Lapis said absentmindedly. Peridot gasped and only strengthened her hug, as much as she could. And just a second before the video ended we see Lapis hug Peridot back, as best as she could having her arms held against her body by Peridot's.

The video ends.

"That's all the videos for now. We've done a lot more between all this but we just didn't record it." Lapis stated.

Peridot held on to her tablet, stunningly silent. She then started typing away on her tablet.

"That was so nice to see! I'm really glad you show them to me, guys!"

"Yeah, it was nice to look back." Lapis replied.

Peridot finished typing on her tablet and threw it to the side.

"Yes! Reminiscing about the past is truly a marvel. It gives you great appreciation of where we are now to see how far we've come."

Lapis smiles while Steven chuckles.

"It was really good to see you guys, I think I'm going to head out and leave you guys to your morping."

"Alright Steven, do you need a lift?"

"No thanks, Lapis. I'm pretty quick these days."

"Okay, Goodbye Steven. It was really good to see you."

"Yes! Visit any time." Peridot tacked on at the end.

"Bye, you guys." Steven said floating down to the first floor of the barn.

"Alright Lapis, are you ready to finish this grand morp to be _ALL_ morps!"

"Sure. Let's do it together!"

Lapis flies back to her post and gets into position, while Peridot lifts her arms and starts bending the metal with great ease.

 ** _~In the countryside~_**

Steven takes out his phone and clicks on Connie's contact info and hits a little envelope button.

 _Hey Connie! I just needed to tell someone really quick, but I think Peridot and Lapis might like each other. As a little more than friends._

Steven pushed the send button on his text and a little bubble of text appeared underneath bunch of other bunches of text.

 _You received a notification from 'Cheeper'._

Steven tapped on the notification.

"Oh Hey, Peridot updated her account."

 _I believe I am feeling a great amount of affection for Lapis._

 _And not like she's my friend with Steven and Amethyst and everyone else._

 _It feels like something more._

 _I can't quite explain it._

 _I'm just happy when I get to see her._

 _And I'm ecstatic when I see her happy._

 _She is my home, after all, the bubble confirmed it._

Steven read the series of updates with gleeful cheer. He went back to his messages with Connie.

 _Okay, Connie. Now I know something is going on._

Steven then warped away with a familiar 'whir' from the warp pad sounding off and letting the light completely engulf him to take him back home.


	5. Day Five: Sports AU

**We'll Do It Together**

 **Day Five (20th):** Olympics/Sports AU

 **Alternatively, can be referred to as "Super Steven Universe Turbo Deluxe Baseball Anime Ultimate"**

 _ **~several days later~**_

Lapis was flying gently through the night sky. The clouds underneath her and the moon, bright and full off in the distance brimming the bright light it reflects off of the sun which has long since set for this part of the world.

Lapis decided to take a day for herself after several days of helping Peridot out with her part of the morp. It was nice to work together but Peridot's attention to the pristine details when morping got to be a bit taxing for Lapis.

Peridot decided to take it easy on her today, though, and Lapis was grateful for that.

Lapis' eyes quickly flashed over to their mirror-like state and in each of the orbs, you could see the scene play out.

 ** _~earlier that day~_**

"I believe I have achieved all of the necessary components I needed to with you as my model, so you no longer have to help me with my half off the morp. I can handle the rest from here."

Peridot said this very professionally as if she were a boss talking to an employee. Peridot's nervousness about the whole situation was evident and there were a couple beads of sweat on either side of Peridot's face.

"Are you sure?" Lapis asked evenly.

"I could stay and help."

Lapis was being genuine in her offer to help, but the marks underneath her eyes were evidence of a deep exhaustion.

Lapis needed a break and Peridot knew this.

"I think I will be fine. My memory is excellent, albeit not perfect like yours. I think I'll be able to get the rest of the morp done by tonight if I really work on it."

"I think I have an idea."

Lapis went over to a pile of materials and dug out Peridot's tablet. She turned it on.

"Catch." Lapis tossed the tablet at Peridot who threw her arms out and caught the tablet with her abilities. Lapis quickly flew over to the pedestal she had called home for the past few days or so and quickly struck the same pose at the nearly completed morp right next to her.

"Take a 'picture', that way you have something to work with while I'm gone."

Peridot clapped her face with both of her hands in astonishment.

"Lapis, that's such a fantastic idea!"

Lapis blushed lightly; smiling; putting the hand she had raised in the air for the pose into her messy hair and let her other hand fall lazily to her side.

A faint clicking sound resounds off.

"Did you hear that?"

Lapis asked glancing around the room.

"It was probably something on the first floor. Get ready Lapis!"

Lapis resumed her pose for the morp and the same click from before was heard.

"Alright!" Peridot windmills the tablet to her with her ferrokinesis. "I think that will do!"

"If you say so." Lapis summons her water wings.

"Where are you heading off to?"

"I was just going to go flying, see more of Earth. Are you going to be okay here?"

Peridot is fiddling with her tablet.

"Of course! As I said , I'll be busy with the morp well into the night. So you'll probably see me when you get back!"

Lapis nodded before rising into the air and flying out of the front entrance of the barn.

Lapis shut her eyes again and opened them, her regular eyes present again.

It was strange. Lapis never really used her mirror eyes other than business she reported back to homeworld or more recently revealing the nature of her origins of getting stuck on Earth.

Well, _part of the origins_.

The rest was a story for another time.

Hopefully, another time that doesn't come.

 **~back to the present~**

So grateful in fact she decided to make her vacation into a part way work-cation. In Lapis' arms were Peridot's limb enhancers. Peridot had mentioned losing them after a confrontation with Steven and the gems. And although Peridot seemed more than comfortable without her limb enhancers Lapis her green cohort could at least sues the pieces in a morp.

Peridot always had a knack for taking a bad situation from the past and turning it into something positive, mostly through morps but still-

It was something Lapis couldn't help but admire about her roommate.

"It's amazing the way she can do that." Lapis stated very positively.

Lapis had hardly been paying attention to where she was flying, but fortunately, she didn't need to. As long as she was flying straight, that's about all she needed to do.

The barn started coming into view on the horizon, upon seeing this, Lapis decided to kick up the speed a little bit.

Flying around Earth and exploring was nice, but there was something about coming home that made Lapis smile.

Something that made Lapis happy.

Peridot wasn't on their balcony, which probably meant she was still inside of the barn and still working.

"Oh, Peri." Lapis huffed out, with a small smirk warming up her features.

Lapis descended to the entrance of the barn and had decided to casually walk in.

"Hey Peridot, are you still working?" Lapis called out, the yell echoing throughout the whole of the barn.

There was no response in the dark of the barn. Lapis looked up in the loft area where Peri had been working and noticed it was pitch black up there too. Usually, if Peridot went to go look for something in the barn, or if she had been working she'd be using her gem for light. Lapis summon her wings again and quickly lifted herself to the top floor of her shared home.

She saw Peridot, curled up into a ball on the recliner they kept in the loft, mainly for Lapis' use as Peridot would be frequently busy with some side project or another and Lapis would just watch Peridot work. It made Peridot happy to have Lapis involved and Lapis found a sense of contentment watching Peridot buzz around the barn.

Lapis looked up at the morp. It wasn't done but Peridot had put a decent amount more work into it. The frame of the body had been complete for a while but Peridot had since added the details of Lapis' clothing and her messy hair. Finer details such as the face were still left undone.

Lapis walked over to the sleeping form of Peridot. She's huddled into the neatest, smallest, green orb possible clutching in the middle of her chest her tablet.

"Someone's a little tired." Lapis said, setting down Peridot's acquired Limb Enhancers on the floor next to the chair.

Lapis then sat on the arm of the chair.

Lapis pets Peridot's head, bending down the triangular point at the top and disorganizing it. Peridot's face shifted into a smile, seemingly at the mere presence of Lapis' touch. Lapis decided to take this opportunity and scoop up the balled-up Peridot and tablet into her arms and holding on to her tightly.

"C'mon. If you're going to fall asleep, you have to at least make it to bed."

Lapis summoned her water wings and carefully hovers herself and Peridot down to the first floor of the barn and more specifically towards their hammock. Gently landing in the hammock, Lapis laid herself down first and simply let the sleeping Peridot stay balled-up in her lap.

The moments waxed by and Lapis took it upon herself to run her hands through Peridot's blonde hair. Her fingers coarsening against the grain of her hair's natural flow. The unconscious Peridot made a low humming noise of appreciation.

"I'm really glad you're able to sleep peacefully."

Lapis reserved her hand motions and started directing Peridot's hair into its correct order. Then she took Peridot's red bow tie and put it on her own neck.

"It must be nice."

Lapis wraps both of her arms around Peridot, clasping her hands together on top of Peridot's torso.

"Got any nice dreams you want to share with me tonight? I'd sure like to see one. The last one was nice."

As if on instinct, Peridot started spreading out her entire body. Each of her four limbs stretching out to each side of the hammock they were lying in, but not quite reaching off the edges while Peridot's tablet leans against her body.

"Starting to think you can hear me. I'll have to watch what I say."

Peridot's gems started to glow, and like had happened before a light extended to the empty ceiling space of the barn above their hammock. The initial image Lapis saw from Peridot's dreams was a little surprising, to be honest.

It was Lapis, but she was wearing her baseball outfit and unlike during the game she played against the rubies with Steven and the other gems- she was looking incredibly determined as she stared down whoever was on the other side of her gaze. The recipient was soon to be revealed as none other than the leader of all of Homeworld's armies, herself, Yellow Diamond. With her stood the Ruby Squad and Jasper herself.

"You dare defend this pitiful waste of space."

Yellow Diamond bellowed, her booming voice carrying throughout the entirety of the baseball stadium everyone appeared to be in.

"She is a wanted criminal. One who not only had the audacity to insult my regality to my face but also take part in any mission to dismantle my Cluster."

Lapis' expression did not waver. Standing directly behind Lapis was Peridot who was looking frightened out of her mind. Behind that blue and green duo are the rest of the crystal gems: Garnet, amethyst, Pearl, Steven and most surprisingly of all Greg and Lion.

"And even more so, this pathetic speck decided to ally with these traitors. There is no reason you should be defending her. Stand aside, Lazuli and allow us to capture all of these traitors and perhaps I will let you return to Homeworld, despite your own personal crimes."

"No."

Yellow Diamond's face twisted into pure anger.

"You dare defy me? Would you resist me? You would surrender everything you ever were and ever will be? And for what?"

Yellow diamond questioned, gesturing to the group behind Lazuli.

"A bunch of traitors?"

Yellow Diamond points directly to Peridot.

"And a lowly, puny Peridot."

Peridot's face dropped upon hearing this for a second time, especially from someone she used to idolize so heavily.

"I will choose to defy you every single moment for the rest of my life if you are even thinking about threatening my Peridot."

Lapis put a hand onto Peridot's head.

"Or my Beach Summer Fun Buddy."

Lapis looked back at Steven whose eyes were stuck in a star-struck mode.

"Or anyone these two care about."

We see the rest of the group. Amethyst was sticking her tongue out with one hand behind her head. Pearl completely shocked. Garnet was smirking. Greg who was terrified out of his mind, almost as much as Peridot and Lion…well his growling signaled that this one of the rare opportunities he cared.

"Oh. Is that so then, Lazuli?"

Yellow diamond crossed her arms indignantly.

"How do your propose you are going to protect all of these maggots from me, and my soldiers?"

On cue, Jasper, and the Ruby Red Squad all punch a fist into their opposite hand.

Lapis was looking down at the ground. Her baseball cap, although ill-fitting was still casting shade over her eyes in a dramatic, anime-esque fashion. Suddenly Lapis rose her face to meet Yellow Diamond, a 'shing' crossing across her features. Lapis pointed a baseball bat directly at one of the supreme leaders of Homeworld.

"I challenge you, Yellow Diamond to a single round of baseball."

Everyone behind Lapis now had star-struck eyes, Peridot joined along in this but also rising triumphantly next to her barn mate with an adorable cat smile tacked on as well.

"Oh yes. The pitiful Earth game you tricked my rubies into playing."

Yellow Diamond squatted down to look deeper into Lapis' eyes, causing everyone to shrink back and bringing them back to reality, especially Peridot. Lapis' body did not budge and her gaze never stopped meeting Yellow Diamond's. She stood her ground.

"The supreme leader of Homeworld's armies should have absolutely no trouble accepting my challenge then." Lapis flashed a huge, toothy, anime-protagonist smile towards Yellow Diamond.

Everyone behind Lapis starting sounding off in unison with a crescendo-ing 'Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh' while everyone behind Yellow Diamond looked like they were about to ruin their pants, so to speak.

Yellow Diamond's expression turned into a snarl.

"Fine then. Once I beat you, I'm going to shatter you and all these pathetic specimens."

Yellow Diamond eyed Peridot again. Peridot retreated behind Lapis even more.

"I think I'll let you watch me exterminate the life out of each of these creatures. The peridot's shattering will be long, slow and painful."

Peridot started shaking in fear. The rest of the CG's gathered around Peridot behind Lapis.

"Just get ready to pitch. Three strikes and you can do whatever you want."

"Lapis, don't you think you're taking it too far?" Steven asked, holding on to Peridot as tightly as he could.

Lapis went to speak, but Peridot spoke up instead.

"Don't worry, Steven. Lapis knows what she's doing. I trust her."

Peridot looked up at Lapis who was looking down at her. Peridot gave Lapis a determined look and nodded her head once. Lapis reciprocated the motion.

Lapis made a slow trudge up to the home base. As she approached the respective members of the opposing sides filled in various spaces in the empty baseball Stadium. Lapis' side watching with baited anticipation and Yellow Diamond's watching with comfortable ease.

Lapis finally made it to home plate. She hit the bat against home a couple of times before delivering a powerful side glance towards Yellow Diamond.

Yellow diamond tossed the baseball into the air a couple of time. The small spherical object like a speck in comparison to Yellow Diamond's massive figure.

"Prepare yourself, Lazuli."

Yellow Diamond merely flicked the baseball at Lapis. Even without trying, the baseball rocketed past Lapis and pierced through the stadium wall. Several different car alarms were heard of in the distance. Lapis looked at the hole Yellow Diamond created by just flicking the ball, her calm and cool composure started to final fade for the first time since the dreams started.

"That was a mere fraction of my power. Do you understand yet, Lazuli?"

Yellow diamond caught another baseball thrown to her by her side of the audience, holding the ball in her massive hand.

"You're in over your head."

Yellow diamond underhand throws the baseball in Lapis' direction. This one grazed Lapis' shoulder, tearing off the sleeve of the baseball clothing she was wearing.

Lapis feel to her knees. Her features slumping and shade covering her eyes.

"I just got everyone shattered."

Lapis slumped lower.

"Everyone is going to die, and it's all my fault."

Yellow Diamond is smugly tossing a baseball up and down in anticipation.

A voice pierces through the hysteria.

"YOU CAN DO IT LAPIS!"

Lapis looks up at her side of the stand. Peridot is nearly standing over the edge, yelling.

"I'VE NEVER MET SOMEONE AS POWERFUL OR AS RESILIENT AS YOU, LAPIS!"

Lapis stands up to look at Peridot, her eyes shimmering.

"EVERY DAY YOU'RE LEARNING SOMETHING NEW! EVERY DAY YOU GROW STRONGER! MAYBE NOT PHYSICALLY, BUT EMOTIONALLY AND MENTALLY."

Lapis' eyes start welling up with tears.

"EVERY DAY YOU GROW MORE AND MORE AND EVERY DAY YOU START TO SEE YOURSELF AS THE GEM I SEE YOU AS, YOU START TO SEE YOURSELF AS THE GEM I'VE COME TO KNOW AND AS THE GEM I'VE COME TO LOVE!

Tears start streaming down Lapis' face. She delivers a bright smile at Peridot, before snapping her head back to Yellow Diamond with nothing but ferocity.

"Get ready to be shattered, Lazuli." Yellow Diamond gripped the ball into her fist.

With all of the skill and grace of an actual baseball pitcher. Yellow diamond went through the motions of throwing a perfect pitch, befit of a diamond.

The pitch left Yellow Diamond's hand and it left at speeds nearly unregisterable by the human eye.

Lapis was not human.

Lapis with her unimaginable amount of mental fortitude perfectly timed her swing to meet the oncoming ball with direct, precise contact.

The world seemed to pause at the exact moment the ball met the bat. And even faster than the ball came at Lapis propelled the ball right back, breaking the bat in the process, at Yellow Diamond.

Yellow Diamond barely had time to react before she felt the full force of the small round object hit her square in the gem. Her gem was plenty strong the take the force of the blow but her body was sent flying into the air by the sheer force of the blow. The ball finally stopped pushing Yellow Diamond and feel off her body, allowing Yellow Diamond to start her descent back to Earth with nothing but pure rage plastered on her face.

But it wasn't over yet. As Yellow Diamond looked down towards the gems she wanted to shatter more than anything, she saw nothing but Lapis Lazuli flying up towards her at her full speed holding both of her hands on a baseball bat made out of hard-water forged around the broken down remains of her old baseball bat. There was a blue flame in her eyes and she opened her mouth and started producing an anime-style yell charging towards her target.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Lapis underwent one last speed boost, causing several sonic booms in her wake. Using her natural speed and a combination of spinning around wildly, she sent her newly reforged bat into direct contact with the previously falling ball. The second the ball was struck by Lapis' bat it split into dozens of little pieces, all of them hurdling towards Yellow Diamond faster and harder than the ball which sent her flying in the first place. The pieces of Baseball started hitting Yellow Diamond and each one sent Yellow diamond flying a little further into the air like their parent baseball.

Unlike their parent baseball, every single one of these pieces of baseball while thrusting Yellow Diamond further into the sky also pierced her physical form, sending dozens of blindingly pain shocks through Yellow Diamond's body. Her body with each piece of baseball started to look more and more like one of the kindergartens Yellow Diamond would proudly taunt to her other diamonds.

After the seemingly timeless barrage. Yellow Diamond found herself in near-orbit. Dozens of tiny holes within her physical form, holes which the now approaching Lapis can easily see the stars through. Yellow Diamond could hardly move. She was barely able to contort her head in Lapis' direction before her physical form finally poofed, dropping a yellow, diamond-shaped gem.

Lapis quickly grabbed the gem in question an enveloped it in a Dark-Blue bubble.

"I can't wait to show Peridot and the others."

Lapis Lazuli then flew back down to the baseball stadium where the epic encounter took place. She landed gently on the ground with a dark-blue bubble in her mitts. Her baseball attire torn and burnt from her encounter with Yellow Diamond. A couple of large tears on her crop top, most notably the back of her shirt where her water wings jetted out of. Her daisy duke style shorts were frayed in several places and her socks and shoes were practically non-existent. Her hat long gone.

Everyone in the stadium was shocked but no more than Yellow Diamond's crew who were so shocked that their forms literally dissipated at the sight of their leader bubbled by Lapis, leaving nothing but their gemstones.

Gemstones which Steven and the crystal gems quickly bubble and send off to the temple.

Lapis looks upon this scene and couldn't be happier by what she was seeing.

"L-Lapis?"

Or so she thought.

Lapis turns to see Peridot standing only a few feet away. Blushing madly seeing Lapis in her now damaged and quite revealing baseball uniform holding the bubbled gem of her former boss who was getting ready to shatter her. The sun was setting in the background, right behind Lapis, casting a glow on her figure which only served to heighten Peridot's nerve as she approached the blue, water angel anxiously. Lapis tapped the top of the bubble and sent it 'home' wherever that meant for her.

"I-I-I just wanted to say… Wow Thanks for…well bubbling Yellow Diamond and standing up for me."

" _And for being so beautiful while doing it."_ Peridot whispered out.

Lapis' started tearing up.

Peridot suddenly rushed into Lapis, embracing her passionately. Her face completely flushed while holding onto Lapis.

Lapis' entire face turned a deep shade of blue and she reciprocated Peridot's embrace.

"L-Lapis?"

Lapis looked down at Peridot, who was looking up at her nervously with a twinkle in her eye.

"Can we- I mean if y-you want to. C-C-Can we- reenact Perc-"

Peridot was immediately silenced.

Peridot's eyes widened in shock, but slowly and surely she let them close and enjoyed the moment.

Lapis Lazuli had bent down and met Peridot's lips with her own. Lapis used their embrace to help gain more leverage to make the kiss even deeper and more passionate.

A dark blue bubble appeared next to the blue and green duo in the middle of the baseball field just before they fell on the ground unraveled in their passion.

This moment seemed to last forever.

…..

Lapis could not believe what she was seeing in Peridot's dream right now.

She was left utterly speechless.

Lapis looked down at the sleeping form on top of her. Her unconscious body smiling deeply.

Peridot's tablet made a 'ding' sound.

Lapis not knowing what else to do picked up Peridot's tablet, turning on the screen.

 _TheUniverseOfSteven recheeped you._

 _Awwwwww, Peri! This is so cute. You're in love! 3_

Lapis scrolled up to see what Steven was referencing and saw Peridot's latest logs.

 _I believe I am feeling a great amount of affection for Lapis._

 _And not like she's my friend with Steven and Amethyst and everyone else._

 _It feels like something more._

 _I can't quite explain it._

 _I'm just happy when I get to see her._

 _And I'm ecstatic when I see her happy._

 _She is my home after all, the bubble confirmed it._

Lapis exited out of Peridot's logs and was greeted with Peridot's background picture. It was a picture of Lapis from earlier.

In it Lapis was blushing lightly; smiling; putting the hand she had raised in the air for the pose into her messy hair and letting her other hand fall lazily to her side.

Lapis gently got out of the hammock and set Peri's tablet back on her torso before summoning her water wings and flying quickly to the top of the silo jutting out of the barn.

Inside the Barn the dream projection stopped, and Peridot lazily lifted her head and looked around. She noted she was in the hammock.

"Lapis…must still…be out. I can't wait…to tell her about… the neat dream I had."

Peridot dozed off while outside Lapis clutched her legs close to her chest, with heavy, sunken eyes overlooking the vast emptiness of the countryside.

Not even the crickets were chirping.


	6. Day 6: Hurt-comfort

**~We'll Do It Together~**

 **Day Six (21st):** Hurt-Comfort

 **~The Next Morning~**

"HEY LAPIS!"

Peridot loudly called up to her roommate who is still on the roof of the barn silo, like she had been all night, her body balled up with Lapis hugging her legs close to her chest and letting her head rest on top of her knees looking down at a small spot of the silo roof.

"ARE YOU OKAAAAY!?" Peridot called up, somehow even louder than her previous shout.

Lapis didn't move.

Lapis didn't respond.

Lapis didn't show any indication of having even heard anything Peridot had said.

Peridot's eyes started darting around to the left then to the right awkwardly.

" _Lapis. Please. I just need to know that you're okay. Anything."_

Peridot thought to herself, her mouth opening to say something but stopping and closing upon revision.

"Steven and I are just going to go on an adventure of sorts."

Peridot paused for a beat to see if she was going to get any kind of reaction out of Lapis but found herself lacking in any kind response from her.

"We'll be back. Later tonight. I promise!"

Peridot's eyes were shimmering as she looked up at Lapis. A mixture of both Sadness and concern.

"Okay, Peridot! I grabbed everything out of the barn that you wanted me to! I think we're ready to go if you're finished checking on Lapis."

Steven appeared out of the barn's front entrance. He was currently dressed in his full winter attire as he was fiddling with his cheeseburger backpack. He had his head down, actively attempting to shut his novelty backpack which seemed to be filled to the brim with a myriad of varying items. When he looked up, he saw Peridot clutching a fist to her chest staring up at a despondent Lapis with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Peridot?" Steven asked quietly.

Peridot didn't respond. Steven decided to take the direct approach and grabbed Peridot on the shoulder. Peridot jumped at Steven's mere touch, surprised to see him.

"OH! Steven. Have you already compiled all of the necessary items I requested into your food-themed storage unit?"

"Yeah! Got everything you wanted right here."

Steven looked up at Lapis on top of the silo then back down at Peridot who returned her gaze back to Lapis while Steven was looking away.

"Is Lapis okay, Peridot?"

Steven asked genuinely, knowing the answer but wanting to try and get Peridot talking.

"I surmise. We should be on our way. I want to be back her before sunset if possible."

Peridot cocked her head downwards.

Then immediately shot back up, pointing her finger dramatically in the air.

"We must be as efficient as possible!"

Steven smiled at Peridot's enthusiasm as she ran off towards the direction of the nearest warp pad. Steven jumped once to catch up with her. The two ran side by side for a few moments before finally making it to what was officially dubbed as the "Peri-Pad".

Well, at least Peridot referred to it as such.

Steven and Peridot were standing on the warp pad. They were such a distance away from the barn that they could no longer see the aforementioned structure in the distance. Peridot continued looking off in the distance from the warp pad vantage point.

 _"Lapis. I'll be back soon, just you wait. We'll figure out whatever's going on. Together."_

"Where to Peridot?"

"North Steven! There is something I want to check out."

Steven salutes in a typical military fashion.

"Aye, aye Captain!"

The familiar whir of the warp pad sounded off.

Off in the distance, back at the barn, we see Lapis. She finally lifts her head out of her knees and her eyes are shifted over to their mirror mode.

"I can't let anyone depend on me ever again."

We see visages of several familiar scenes from Lapis' life.

Getting trapped on Earth.

Everyone leaving her behind.

Pearl finding her mirror.

Steven letting her go.

The ocean fight.

Being imprisoned.

Fusing with Jasper.

Jasper offering her to fuse again.

Then the memories seemed to cycle back around, but to nothing Lapis had seemed to share with anyone. Images of her flying away from a squad of gems as their forms were dispersed. Images of a gem holding on to Lapis' leg as she is trying to fly away yelling something at her and Lapis crushing her, poofing her and trying to fly away as fast as she can. Images of what appear to be a human being contorting wildly on the ground in a fit of spasms with a remorseless Lapis standing over them, moving nothing but her hands and fingers. And many more considerably darker moments not yet revealed about Lapis' life until eventually looping back to Lapis getting poofed and thrust into a mirror.

"It's just how it is with me."

 **~At the Great North~**

The familiar whir of the warp pad sounds off, and the light couple along with it reveals the visages of two figures. The light eventually dissipates and the visages are none other than Steven and Peridot.

"Now if my calculations are correct; from our location here we should be going…"

Peridot looks up at the sky, pointing up at the sky with a finger from each hand and make all sorts of small motions with them before eventually moving them in a straight line from the sky down to the ground, pointing northeast from the warp pad.

"This way." Peridot said taking it upon herself to lead the way towards the desired location.

"So you were kind of vague when you came to the temple earlier about what we were searching for."

"Purposely so Steven! If I shared too many details about the purposes of these adventures then it might have involved the rest of the gems, and I'm not entirely ready to share the details of why I'm necessarily doing this with anyone, but if there is one person I know I can confide in, it is you!"

Steven smiled, putting a hand behind his head in an act of humility. He's taken off guard though when he hears what Peridot attempt to whisper to herself.

 _"And Lapis, but I can't tell her about this. It'll ruin the surprise!"_

Steven's face then became inquisitive.

"So what are we looking for? Since you can confide in me and everything." Steven winked, bumping Peridot with his elbow.

"I'm glad you asked, dear Steven! You see, several nights ago me and Lazuli were stargazing. It was after our miraculous adventure in the Beta Kindergarten where I showed my true might and prowess as the new leader of the crystal gems!"

Steven laughed which didn't deter Peridot at all.

"We started having a very deep conversation about homeworld and the implications of our actions to stay on Earth. Admittedly it was mostly me, but you know how Lapis is about personal details."

Steven nodded.

"Anyway, in the midst of our talk we were staring at Homeworld's Galaxy from the barn- as a reference point from which we came from and where we are now and although I don't think Lapis caught onto it, I noticed a few distinct meteorites plummeting to Earth. There only about three and as I watched them burning through the earth's atmosphere, two of them never had a chance to make it the Earth's surface- one, however, looked promising."

"So we're looking for a meteorite?"

Steven then jumped in front of Peridot, Stars in his eyes.

"Are planning to use the meteorite in one of yours and Lapis' art projects."

Peridot's head cocked back in surprise.

"Meep Morp, and in a roundabout way. Yes! Just not the meteorite itself, we want what may be _inside_ the meteorite."

"What's going to be inside of the meteorite?"

Steven's question was met with Peridot taking Steven by the shoulder and continuing to walk him forward through the harsh snowy environment.

"You'll see, Steven."

The two continued walking through the harsh snowy terrain their forms disappearing in the moderate snowfall, leaving only footprints behind.

 **~Back at the Barn~**

Lapis had finally left her perch from on top of the silo and nestled herself in the jury-rigged truck bed balcony. Lapis had wrapped herself in a blanket that they keep in the bed of the truck. The sky around the barn had turned a dark, stormy gray- coinciding directly with Lapis' emotional state of mind.

Camp Pining Hearts Playing in the background.

"I trusted you, Paulette. But when I needed you for the three-legged race- you let me down."

"Percy- I didn't mean to-!"

"It's too late Paulette. There's nothing you can do aboot it now."

Lapis covered herself in the blanket.

It started to rain at the barn.

 **~The Great North~**

Peridot and Steven were trudging along through the snow covered forests of The Great North. The snowfall had honestly started to lighten up in the past hour Steven and Peridot have been traveling.

"Nice to see the snow is letting up. We won't have to duck in cover like me and Connie had to when we were here."

Steven said this, trailing behind Peridot slightly letting her lead the way. Peridot was looking up at the sky.

"Yes! It appears the meteorological conditions are working in our favor! We should be done with this adventure in no time!"

Peridot's enthusiasm rang throughout the empty forest, echoing slightly.

"It happened really suddenly, especially with how gray the skies were looking when we got here. I was a little worried."

Steven runs up to walk side by side with Peridot.

"I guess you're a good luck charm, Peri!" Steven said matter-of-factly, eyes closed/

Peridot blushed slightly at this.

"It's all skill, Steven, no luck involved!" Peridot turned around and starting walking backward saying this. A feat which would have been impressive for Peridot if it didn't end with her backing into a rocky cliff and falling forward onto her face.

Steven stifled a giggle.

 **"** Need some help, Peri?"

"I can assure you, I am fine."

Peridot pushed herself up from the snow.

"I merely misjudged the distance we had to go until we met this sedimentary structure."

Steven and Peridot looked at the rocky cliff face. It was covered in claw marks.

"This is where we met up with Jasper after seeing her on the boat with Lapis. This is where she caught the corrupted gem that she fused with."

"She clearly had her terrified." Peridot said before turning her head down.

 _"That corrupted Gem and I have something in common." Peridot thought._

"NO MATTER! We've come too far to let a memory or a cliff stop us. Steven!"

Steven saluted.

"My trash can lid please!"

"Aye aye, Peridot!"

Steven threw down his cheeseburger backpack and opened up the bun pocket. Steven gripped the edge of the garbage can lid he pulled it out of his wacky sack.

"One garbage can lid for your elevator need."

Steven offered the lid to Peridot who grabbed it at the edges with both of her hands. Peridot scanned up the face of the cliff and carefully selected a spot in order to put down her lid. Peridot stepped a few steps to the right of her original position and carefully laid down the lid before standing upon it.

"Peridot, You know I could just jump us both up, right?"

"I have long since thought about that possibility, Steven. However, I the great and powerful Peridot must do these things myself. To prove myself!"

Peridot then threw her arms out and closed her eyes, beginning to concentrate.

The trash can lid underneath her began to levitate slightly off of the ground. Peridot's rise started off successful, the trash can lid rising nice and evenly off of the ground. Peridot's had a look of pure zen and absolute concentration. She made it about halfway up the cliff when her face started contorting.

Her perfectly neutral composure started cracking and in its place was a deep frown and sunken eyes.

Her trash can lid started to shake, causing Peridot herself to wobble, but peridot was able to keep her balance.

She is three-quarters of the way up.

Her body is starting to visibly sweat and her jaw is stuck clenching, her teeth grating together to try and keep the focus alive.

The lid is shaking erratically. Peridot is having trouble keeping her balance.

"I….Just…..Have to…hold it…for a little longer."

Peridot's hands closed and turned into fists. Peridot was clenching everything possible to try to keep her balance.

All in vain.

The trash can lid turned onto its side harshly in the air, sending Peridot plummeting to the ground and completely breaking her concentration causing the trashcan lid to flip erratically in the other direction.

Peridot was left with the top half of her body stuck in the snow.

"HCLGGHPMHCLGHPM!"

Her legs were wiggling around crazily as she attempted to yell from inside the snow. Steven ran up to this friend and grabbed both of her legs with each of his arms and swiftly pulled Peridot out with now problem.

"CLODING CLODDY TRASH CAN LID NOT OBEYING MY METAL POWERS."

Steven was now holding Peridot by on leg and she threw her arms around in frustration.

"Peridot, I know you wanted to do this by yourself, but sometimes it's okay to let people help you."

Steven decided to emphasize the point by jumping both him and Peridot up the cliff very quickly. Steven set a grumpy Peridot on the ground.

"Thank you, Steven." She mumbled out before proceeding off in the intended direction, Steven following close behind.

"So, is Lapis doing okay?"

"I'm not entirely sure, Steven. I think she is caught deep in her own thoughts and it makes me nervous."

"Why's that?"

"Lapis keeps a lot of stuff to herself."

Peridot and Steven step over a fallen log.

"She keeps it from you and she keeps it from me. I've always kept myself at a respectable distance but close enough if she needed me then I would be there."

"Awwwww, Peri." Steven cooed at Peridot causing her face to heat up a little from embarrassment.

"I care about her very deeply, Steven. I can't really quite explain it. Which is an odd phenomenon for me."

"When she's happy I get twice as happy-"

A large clearing starting coming up in the distance."

"When she's sad or hurting…I don't think I've ever felt quite so small."

In the clearing ahead there appears to be a crater in the ground.

"Peridot. You're in love!"

Steven tackles Peridot and lifts her up in a massive hug, spinning her around.

"It's so cute! Have you told Lapis yet?"

Peridot's eyes went cross for a short moment before she regained her composure.

"I'm not the best with words, Steven. So instead I am electing on ACTION!" Peridot unfurled one of her arms from Steven's grasp and held it up for emphasis.

"And speaking of action, we are actually here, so if you will kindly put me down…"

Steven does just this. Peridot and Steven walk closer to the destination in question and it is a large crater in the ground with a moderately sized meteorite in the center of it.

"YES! Now we just need to investigate it and see if it has what I need."

Peridot quickly down the edge of the crater, her excitement pulsing through her and infecting Steven who happily followed.

They approached the Meteorite in question, its form was for the most part still intact.

"Darn, the outside is still intact. Looks like we'll need to crack it open. Luckily I have planned for such predicaments!"

Peridot threw her right arm backward.

"Steven, the drill please!"

Steven threw down his cheeseburger backpack, opening the tomato pouch and pulling out Peridot's power drill and handing it to her.

Peridot clicked the trigger a couple of times.

"Alright. Time for immediate excavation!"

Peridot held down the trigger and started filling the meteorite's form with holes straight along the middle of it. After about ten minutes of drilling, Peridot set down the drill and threw her hand back towards Steven.

"Rhythmic Pulverizer!"

Steven handed Peridot a hammer.

Peridot began lining up the hammer on one exact point on the rock. She lifted the hammer up quickly and brought it down with as much force as her tiny green body could handle. The rock split instantly upon Peridot's hammer blow.

When the rock opened up, it filled to the brim with bright green rocks.

"YES! OH MY STARS, YES! PERIDOT WINS AGAIN JUST LIKE ALWAYS!"

Several Nyehheheheh's filled the empty forest air, while Steven went to go check on Peridot's discovery. Steven eyed it curiously. He looked back at Peridot, then back at the rocks in the meteorite then once again back to Peridot, more specifically at her forehead.

"Peridot- are this stuff peridot?"

"Precisely, Steven." Peridot smiled widely at her accomplishment.

"Why do you need peridot, Peridot?"

"Let's just call it a Peri-plan, Steven. Now help grab as much as possible!"

Steven's eyes became stars.

They start extracting all the peridot they can from the space rock.

 **~Back at the countryside warp pad~**

The familiar whir of the warp pad sounds off. Peridot and Steven arrive in the middle of the countryside only to find it completely engulfed in the middle of a storm.

"Wow! It's really coming down here." Steven yelled

"How peculiar." Peridot yelled back.

"Why's that? It's just raining." Steven reasoned.

"Yes, but the meteorological conditions didn't appear to be in favor of such a massive storm, it's like it just appeared out of nowhere."

Peridot tried to looked ahead. She could hardly see a few feet in front of her.

"I'd better go by myself, Steven. I don't want anything happening to you in this storm." Peridot said oddly responsibly.

"What about all of this peridot, Peridot? Don't you need it?"

Steven held up all of the peridots in his arms.

"I think I have plenty of peridots to accomplish my objective! I'll visit you sometime soon, Steven. I have to get back to the barn and make sure Lapis is okay in this storm."

Peridot steps off of the warp pad.

"Good luck with you Peri-plan!"

The warp pad's light shoots off, though the sound is blanketed out by the heavy storm."

Peridot turns towards the direction the barn is in and turns on her gem like a flashlight.

She begins walking. Quickly disappearing in the intensity and confusion of the storm.

 **~Back at the barn~**

A faint green light started appearing within a short distance of the barn. The closer and the closer the faint light source came to the barn the more and more Peridot's visage could be made out in the distance.

"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPIS!"

Lapis perked up from underneath the blanket she had enraptured herself in. She frantically pulled it off of her head to reveal her face. She looked panicked with her eyes opened widely, if only for a moment before the rain started hitting them causing her to squint. Lapis looked over the truck bed balcony and she could just barely make out a faint green light before she heard Peridot's voice ring out again.

"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPIS! ARE YOU OKAY? IT'S RAINING REALLY HARD!"

A bolt of lightning flashing in the background a mere couple of miles away from the barn and shortly after a crash of thunder sounds off in response.

Lapis summons her water wings and quickly flies up to her perch on the silo, trying her best to be unseen by her green roommate.

Peridot finally made it into the entrance of the barn, pushing away the tarp and walking into her home away from Homeworld. Peridot is completely soaked, which didn't amount to much other than her hair dropping a bit at the triangular points and raindrops plaster all across her visor. Peridot wiped the rain away from her visor with one of her arms, carrying all of her acquired peridots in the other and proceeded to look all around the barn. Lapis was nowhere to be seen on the first floor.

"LAPIS!"

Peridot called out fruitlessly. The only thing to respond to Peridot's pleas was the sound of the Barn leaking from Peridot and Lapis' not so tight seal of the hole in the barn with the silo.

"Is she still on top of the silo? In this storm?" Peridot's voice rang out with genuine concern.

Then her eyes fell and her head tilted down.

"Is she…Is she avoiding me?"

Saying the words out loud cut Peridot deeper than any diamond ever could. Things have never been this bad.

Peridot's eyebrows furrowed into determination.

"I have to see her. I have to get to the bottom of this!"

Peridot nodded her head with her arms raised into fists.

"I just need to find something that will help me do that."

Peridot put her peridot down on the ground next to her 'Wow! Thanks!' morp for safe keeping while looking around the barn for something suitable to get to the top of the silo. She then looked upstairs towards the loft of the barn.

 **~top of the barn~**

Lapis after noting Peridot entered the barn, flew very stealthily down to the roof of the barn itself and put her head on the roof of the barn in and attempt to listen to whatever Peridot was doing.

Lapis couldn't hear much with the storm raging on just overhead, but she could hear her running around the barn and several notably metallic 'tinks'.

"Oh good. She's probably working on a morp or something."

Lapis let herself relax, but her face still looks bitter and full of regret.

"At least I know she's happy when she's working."

Then Lapis heard a couple of loud 'tinks' against the wooden barn floor and followed them to the entrance/exit of their home away from Homeworld.

Lapis wasn't sure what to expect next. She cautiously gazed over towards where the entrance of the barn was…expecting something.

Sudden a figure started rising from the edge of the barn roof, it was the familiar top-point of a certain green gem's hair.

Lapis immediately sat up.

Peridot's figure started rising more and more out from over the edge of the barn and the more and more it did, the stranger it became.

Peridot's arms had become significantly more cylindrical and were absent of fingers.

"WHOAHAOHAHOAHWHOAH!" was heard in Peridot's shrill voice through the raging storm.

Peridot's full figure came out from over the barn and she landed as softly as she could on the roof. The second she landed a bolt of lightning struck a mere 1000 feet behind her, illuminating her entire figure for just a moment and giving Lapis and clear view of Peridot and Peridot of Lapis.

Peridot looked odd right now in her limb enhancers. Her arms didn't have any of her floating fingers and one of her legs was missing a foot causing her to wobble off balance.

Lapis was completely and utterly soaked, head to toe. Her hair was completely matted down and stuck together is dozens of short, uneven strands all around her head.

Peridot was the first to speak.

"Lapis! Are you okay?! It's raining like crazy- what are doing still outside?"

Thunder cracks in the background.  
"Go away, Peridot!" Lapis yelled back, tears stealthily starting to trickle down her face designed as rain.

Peridot flinched in reaction to this, her own eyes welling up.

"What- why? Did I do something wrong?" Peridot asked defensively, pressing her arm enhancers to her torso.

"No. This isn't about you. This is about me." Lapis said, starting to harden herself to the conversation give off a sense that she doesn't care.

"We have to talk about it Lapis. We live here together. Whatever you're dealing with right now- you don't have to do it alone."

Peridot started walking towards Lapis.

Lapis summons her water wings in response.

"I'm sorry, Peridot. I have to leave."

Lapis ascends to the sky with a beat of her wings; Peridot reaches out towards her with her fingerless arm enhancer.

In a moment, Lapis is gone from sight. Peridot looks down defeated.

Suddenly Peridot starts levitating off of the ground evenly, posed stylistically like Iron Man. And like a rocket, she shoots off towards the sky, much faster than she intended.

"WOAHWOAHWOAHWOAHWOAHWOAHWOWAHOWAHWO!" was all she could manage to get out and she shot through the sky, using her ferrokinesis to propel her limb enhancers through the night air.

Peridot could hardly retain how fast she was going as she sped through the storm with a great amount of force.

Much quickly than she anticipated, though, she caught up with Lapis who had been flying slowly certain Peridot couldn't catch while she was flying.

"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPIS! WAAATCH OUT!"

Peridot cried out, getting ready to hurdle right into Lapis.

Lapis was able to react with plenty of time, allowing Peri to pass by her without a collision. Peridot then threw her arm enhancers in front of her body, effectively stopping her flight on a dime, she then turned around to meet Lapis who was shocked, to say the least.

"We can do it together Lapis, you don't have to be alone."

Raining streaming from her visor, and now also tears.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew everything."

Lapis crossed her arms.

"Jasper was right."

Peridot went to reach out for Lapis and starting wiggling erratically floating in mid-air.

"I'm a monster."

"L-Lapi-"

"Stop following me, Peridot. Just let me go."

Lapis flew past Peridot a lot faster than she thought Lapis was capable of.

Peridot got herself turned around, closed her eyes and letting herself shoot off like a rocket, again, towards the direction Lapis went in. Peridot had Lapis in the view of her visor, just barely, as rain flew off from her field of vision rapidly.

Lapis tried switching up her direction but Peridot stayed persistent and was able to stay right behind her.

Lapis beat her wings once more.

Her speed increased once again.

Peridot tried to speed up as well, but she could only just barely see a speck of Lapis ahead of her.

 _"I'm never going to catch her at this rate." she thought_

Peridot looked around at her leg and arm enhancers.

 _"This is a bad idea. But if it doesn't work out, at least peridots are built tough."_

Peridot points her arm enhancers straight behind her.

 _"If I use ferrokinesis to adjust the functionality of my arm and leg enhancers and turn them rudimentary spring-powered cannons, if should propel me forward with more than enough force and velocity to help me catch Lapis."_

Peridot looked down at the earth below.

 _"Or send me plummeting to the Earth face first."_

Peridot cringed at the afterthought.

 _"Here goes everything."_

Peridot closed her eyes and focused on jury-rigging her limb enhancers. The next few moments seemed to last for an eternity, but eventually, Peridot felt comfortable enough to try out her plan.

Peridot clenched her entire face and suddenly the bottoms of all of her limb enhancers shot forward in a spring-like motion, throttling Peridot forward much faster…so much faster than she expected.

Now she just had to she hit her mark.

Lapis let out a sigh of discontent. She did what she did because she needed to.

Lapis had to protect Peridot and the only way Lapis can really do that is if she isn't a part of her life.

A faint screaming can be heard in the wailing of the storm, something Lapis doesn't pick up on being so entranced by her own self-deprecating thoughts.

With a hard thud, something lands on Lapis' back and automatically latches its arms around Lapis' neck. Lapis looked behind her only to see her green gem roommate doing whatever she can to stay on Lapis' back.

"P-Peridot!?" Lapis cried out.

"I'm here for you Lapis!" she yelled in defiance of the increasing storm. Latching onto Lapis back with her short arms and short legs.

"Peridot. You have to let me go. I'm only going to hurt you in the end." Lapis yelled back.

"I'm not letting go, Lapis. No matter what, I won't give up on you." Peridot squeezed Lapis a little harder.

Lapis went to respond but was caught off by the green gremlin on her back.

"Whatever highs and lows we go through Lapis, we can get through it together. You and me. You don't have to shoulder any burden by yourself anymore if you don't want Lapis because you have me."

Lapis' face fell.

"And I know I don't have to do anything by myself either because I have you."

Lapis' sobbing became apparent even over the raging storm.

"Whatever it is Lapis, we'll do it together."

Lapis still continued to sob but also started descending towards the ground below.

"Please. Let's just talk about it." Peridot inserted.

Lapis didn't respond but continued flying down towards the ground. After a few moments of silence, the duo finally made it to the ground, Lapis landing softly on her feet and retracting her water wings.

Peridot's arms and legs released from Lapis' body, and Peridot fell to the ground with a splash- her body tired from the continuous strain of using her ferrokinesis combined with that stunt she pulled in order to catch Lapis left her completely drained.

The storm was still raging around them. A bolt of lightning can be seen in the background, followed by the crack of thunder.

Lapis finally turns around to face Peridot, tears staining her eyes. Peridot leans up to meet the Blue Gems gaze as best as she can.

"I've hurt people close to me before, Peridot."

Peridot pushes up just a little more and sits up on her butt.

"People who relied on me. People who trusted me to keep them safe."

A bolt of lightning strikes again, close enough to illuminate the field they were at in a flash.

"I've left them behind when they needed me."

Lapis' tears start trailing off of her face and landing along with the rest of the rain on the ground.

"I've actively hurt them when they were reaching out to me for help."

Peridot's gaze didn't break from Lapis', and only grew more concerned as Lapis continued to talk.

"And I did all of this just so I would make it out alive."

"Lapis, we all do things we normally wouldn't when we're scared. I know I did."

"That's not it! These were people- gems – I thought I cared about and yet I was able to discard them so easily without any real regard. I'm a monster, Peridot! I'm not this idealized gem who's super-heroic and willing to take on Yellow Diamond all by herself in any sort of competition. I'm a monster. I'm a coward. And I'm not going to let who I am get you hurt Peridot because I-"

Lapis flinches, stopping herself from saying what she was about to say. A deep blue blush apparent on her face even in the darkness of the storm.

"Because you what, Lapis?" Peridot asked, weakly standing up, managing to shakily get to her feet while still looking at Lapis.

Lapis already deep blush, deepened even further. She was biting her lower lip, looking down.

"Because I love you! Okay?!" Lapis let out in what can only be described as a roar.

The rain all around Peridot and Lapis stopped, not because the storm stopped but because there was a bubble of water surrounding the duo now.

Peridot's face was flushed with a deep green blush to match Lapis' deep blue one.

"You make me feel safe. You make me feel warm. Even whenever I get down, even when I'm a my lowest point- I know it's okay because you're going to be there with me all the way through, which is an especially comforting thought whenever I'm dealing with the bad thoughts in my head. I know I'm not always the best person to be around but you don't treat me any differently. You don't treat me like I'm a burden."

Lapis started walked towards Peridot.

"But I'm not this perfect gem I saw in your dreams last night. And I don't know if I ever will be. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to disappoint you. So I closed myself off."

Lapis snorted, a comforting noise for Peridot who is still standing there in awe at Lapis' declaration.

"But your boundless enthusiasm never ceases to amaze me. You never give up on me- and I'm just afraid I can't do the same for you."

Lapis had completely put herself out there.

She wasn't sure how this situation was going to play out at this point but it was too late to turn back.

The move that happened next surprised Lapis more than anything.

Peridot took off her visor and threw it to the ground. It sunk into the mud.

Peridot then reached her short, little arms up and grabbed Lapis' shoulders, staring intently into into her eyes.

Lapis looked down at the green gem, DIRECTLY into her eyes and found with great surprise that Peridot had two different color eyes, one of her eyes was a pale green like you'd expect, but her other one was a deep blue, not dissimilar to Lapis' own.

"Lapis. You never needed to be a perfect gem. You never needed to not have any flaws in order to be perfect."

Lapis looked down at Peridot with shimmering eyes.

"I've known about your flaws, and it is because of these I've grown to admire you more and more each passing solar cycle."

"You're not the boisterous, powerful gem in my dreams, fighting Yellow Diamond with only a baseball bat and taking no names, but that's the thing Lapis."

"You're better than anything I could dream up-"

Lapis' eye widened as Peridot's face moved closer to hers and stopped just inches before

"because you're real."

Peridot wrapped her arms around Lapis' neck and in one fluid motion and pulled Lapias down towards her. Lapis' eyes bugged out when she realize what just happened.

In one fluid motion, the great and loveable Peridot pulled Lapis Lazuli into a deep, passion embroiled kiss.

Both parties' face completely flushed at this point.

Lapis finally let her eyes close.

Acting on what felt like instinct, Lapis picked up Peridot to bring her more to her level.

The whole moment felt surreal.

The contact finally broke.

"We all change, Lapis. Even if you were the monster you think you are, that isn't who you are always going to be."

Peridot pushed her forehead into Lapis' intensifying their eye contact.

"And more importantly, it isn't who you are now."

Lapis' eyes went star struck.

"The monster you think you are wouldn't have saved Steven and I from the Red Eye, she would have flown away. The monster you think you are wouldn't have played baseball if the only thing on the line was me, someone who, at the time, you could only tolerate."

Lapis' eyes returned to normal, but in exchange she got a big goofy grin on her face.

"You've changed, Lapis. More than you realize."

"I'm not the only one."

Lapis gave a chaste kiss to Peridot's gem.

"Let's go home, Lapis. There's something I wanna show you."

Lapis didn't respond to Peridot, Instead, Lapis walked towards Peridot's discarded visor, picking up off of the ground.

"Think you're forgetting something."

Peridot's eyes bugged out really quickly as she started reaching for her face and noticed a distinct lack of her visor covering her facial features.

"Oh my stars! Lapis give it back!"

Peridot reached for her visor but Lapis held it out of Peridot's reach.

"We have to clean it first."

"How do you suggest we do that?" Peridot asked slightly indignantly.

Lapis simply gestured to the water bubble around them it had grown quite large during their time together in the bubble.

Lapis simply blinked, and a waterfall rained down on the blue and green duo.

The duo was soaked. Well, more soaked considering they'd spent a long time in the storm prior.

Lapis was correct however, the visor was clean.

Peridot went to reach for it again, but still Lapis denied.

"LAPIS!"

"I wanna try something out." Lapis put the visor on herself, a surprisingly accurate fit.

"How does it look?" Lapis asked, her voice even.

Peridot looked up towards Lapis, now wearing her visor. The light green visor really did compliment her blue features very well.

"More than adequate."

"Good. Now hold on. With this on, I should be able to fly much faster since I won't have the wind hitting my eyes."

"Faster!?" Peridot yelped, starting to death grip Lapis' arms.

With one beat of her wings, Lapis was up, off and away with Peridot screaming in her arms.

The two of them flew off exceptionally fast towards their home, and the storm that had plagued this countryside for the last several hours seemed to completely dissipate away and the sun was just barely over the nearby horizon.

The sunset looked even more beautiful than usual after all of that rain.


	7. Day 7: Weddings and Proposals

**Day Seven: (22nd):** Weddings/Proposals

 _ **AN: Thank you, everybody, who took the time to read my fanfiction for Lapidot Week 2016. It was a neat little project for me to delve in and I enjoyed getting to flex my creative muscles. All good things must come to an end and so must this story. I'm very sorry this chapter is so late, that is due to a combination of college happening and me constantly reworking how I wanted this chapter to go in my head. The end result, however, I think is some of the cutest, fluffiest lapidot content if I do say so myself! Or maybe it'll look like I was trying too hard. Either way, I did try! Also apparently there are more lapidot weeks coming up here relatively soon so expect to revisit this universe sometime in the near(ish) future, but for now here is the conclusion to Lapidot week 2016, Weddings and proposals. I hope you enjoy!**_

 ** _~A few weeks after the events of chapter 6~_**

A pair of deep blue eyes scanned the area around them.

The familiar beach area in front of the temple brought forth so many memories.

Well only a few but they mostly involved attacking everybody, but today was a different day.

These were good memories.

Happy memories.

And everyone was there.

Well, 'everyone' is a strong word.

But everyone Lapis cared about was there.

And everyone Peridot cared about was there too.

Lapis looked around at the scene played out in front of her. There were a few dozen rows of white chairs strewn out in neat rows on either side of a red carpet. The chairs were mostly empty.

But Lapis looked forward, a platform with nothing on it aside from a white wedding arch decorated with all sorts of different colored leaves- greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and browns.

Lapis then locked her eyes on one particular figure that lay ahead of her.

It was a lovely green gem looking the oddest combination of nervous, excited and happy the blue gem thinks she had ever seen. Peridot was decked out in a full-on, green tuxedo complimented by her very familiar red bow tie from her alien plushie.

Peridot's expression was surprisingly unreadable but she was clearly trying to keep herself together.

The blue gem couldn't help but smile at her through a thin veil as the classic 'wedding march' started playing in the background, prompting Lapis to begin walking down the aisle.

 ** _~A few weeks prior to the wedding, directly after the events of Chapter six~_**

"So you're saying you can go even faster than that?" Peridot asked her eyes turned into swirls at the dizzying speeds Lapis had been going to get them both to the barn after their encounter in the field.

"Yes. I did fly all the way back to homeworld by myself without any kind of assistance. And I made that trip all the way from Earth in about nine months." Lapis stated very neutrally.

"You're smart. You do the math." She added, finally taking off Peridot's visor and handing it down to the green gem whose eyes finally returned to normal, two differently colored orbs looking up to meet Lapis'.

Peridot gladly accepted the visor in question, applying quickly back to her face and feeling a sense of relief pass over her body now that her own personal feng shui had been returned. Peridot's eyes darted from side-to-side from behind her visor and Peridot did the math of Lapis' journey in her head. Peridot's eyes widened almost instantaneously as she reaches up and grabbed Lapis' shoulders and pulled her down to meet her revelation more intently.

"Lapis that would put your top speed many times past the speed of light- there are ships in Homeworld's various fleets that aren't even capable of that kind of speed!" Peridot's face was broadened in a massive smile as her nerdy enthusiasm rang out as she shook her roommate with this dramatic revelation.

"Huh. Never actually done the numbers before. Thanks, Peridot." Lapis uttered with genuine sincerity pulling the green gem into a quick embrace.

The green gem moved her head out to the left of Lapis' body and looked inside of the barn, more importantly at the pile of peridot sitting on the floor of the barn.

Peridot noticeably gulped.

"So do you want to watch _Camp Pining Hearts_. I know it's season five bu-"

"There's…something I need to ask you first."

Peridot interrupted the blue gem letting go of her before very professionally walking into the barn, leaving the blue gem to follow her.

"Sure." Lapis said her features still evident of the emotional strain she has been in just the past couple of days.

Peridot stopped in front of her 'Wow! Thanks!' morp where her peridot was before deciding to turn around to Lapis.

"Okay! I'm going to make something really quickly but you're not allowed to see it before it's done. It must be a surprise!" Peridot's voice echoing in the closed environment of the barn.

Lapis gave the green gem a confused look before nodding and summoning her water wings covering her eyes hastily with them.

Peridot gives a thumbs up.

"Perfect."

Peridot started looking around the first floor of the barn.

"Now where did I leave that gemstone holster?"

"I can still hear you." Lapis snarked.

"Close your ears as well then! The element of surprise must not be taken from this next moment!"

Lapis raised her hands to where her ears, perceivably, were. The next few moments Lapis simply observed Peridot as she dug around the first floor of their barn looking for a…

Gemstone holster?

Whatever it was Peridot looks really nervous looking for it.

Lapis noted Peridot was visibly sweating, and when she was actively grabbing onto items or pull on the various materials they had lying around for making morps her body was fidgeting.

Lapis was curious what her lovely little green gem had up her sleeve.

A loud crash is heard past Lapis' rudimentary sound deafening maneuver.

Lapis elected to keep her ears plugging, noting the next thing that crossed her blurred line-of-sight which was Peridot holding something in between her closed hands.

Lapis noted her mouth move forming words, but even her enthusiastic cries were deafened to unrecognizable sounds.

Peridot then walked to her 'Wow! Thanks' morp and she picked up a green gemstone off of the ground next to it.

" _Wait. What is that?"_

Lapis thought looking down at the stones on the ground.

 _"They all kind of look like Peridot's gem. Same color, anyway."_

Lapis' features squinted in Peridot's direction focusing on the backside of her petite form as she hunched over the table her morp was placed on, looking intently over whatever she was working on.

Peridot was hunched over her morp's table setting and on the table along with the morp are two items:

A very pristine looking peridot crystal Peridot had acquired from her adventure with Steven.

And a very simple looking ring base with only one slot allotted for gemstone placement.

"Okay. Let's see if I can do this."

Peridot took a quick glance behind her, beads of sweat undercutting from the covered portion of her face. Lapis looked at Peridot with a very Lapis expression.

Seemingly bored and with a distinct curiosity lighting up her blue eyes.

Peridot started blushing to go along with her clammy, shaky exterior.

Peridot took in a deep breathe.

"Let's do this."

In Peridot's right hand she held an appropriately sized piece of peridot for the ring while her left hand was currently being used to make the base of the ring float in the air.

Peridot moved her left hand over slightly, meeting it with the peridot she, herself, was holding.

Peridot very gently opened up the fingers of her left hand; this, in turn, caused the tiny metal rims of the ring to expand oh so slightly.

Peridot then very carefully inserted the aforementioned Peridot into the ring's allotted space and as carefully as she opened up the metal rims of the ring she closed them, creating a homemade peridot ring.

Peridot stared down at the ring in her hands and her mind began racing much faster than the outside world could process.

The hundreds of years as a kindergarten technician weren't wasted after all.

Although this was infinitely more stressful than anything Peridot had been through in all of those hundreds of years.

But Peridot had put a lot of thought into this move.

She didn't quite understand the reasoning behind this human tradition.

But she did understand there was an important emotional implication to this action and the subsequent question she was going to ask Lapis Lazuli.

Peridot had doubts in her mind about the move while she was going to collect the necessary components with Steven.

But after the events of the past several hours…

Peridot was certain about the move she was about to make.

Peridot was absolutely certain to every logical degree, and every illogical one alongside it.

Peridot loved Lapis Lazuli, deeply.

"AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR ACTION!"

Peridot yelled so boisterously that even Lapis with her covered ears could easily hear the green gem clear as day.

Lapis took her hands off her ears and looked down and Peridot, blurrily, due to her water wings.

"Peridot, are you okay?" Lapis said staring at Peridot's blurry form in front of her.

"Yes, Lapis. You may now remove you water wings because I am ready to take ACTION!"

Lapis removed her water wings.

Lapis looked down to see Peridot down on one knee, her left hand resting on her raised knee and her right hand clutching something in its enclosed grasp.

Peridot raised the enclosed hand towards Lapis, slowly opening it up and with great precision lifting the hidden ring up with her middle finger and thumb.

"Lapis Lazuli…."

Peridot looked down before snapping her head back up quickly.

"WILL YOU MARRY ME!?"

The intensely loud question came out of the small green gem's mouth. Her eyes brimming to the widest possible points possible as stars as she looked up and Lapis Lazuli expectantly.

Lapis responded in the only way anyone could react being in her exact same situation.

"What?"

 ** _~The wedding~_**

Peridot gazed down the aisle, basking deeply in the figure which approached her.

Peridot began smiling in nervous excitement.

The beautiful blue gem before her was slowly approaching her in tune to the music. Although initially objecting to the idea, Lapis was dressed in a dress which wasn't melded to her body. It was a lovely elegant white, and after that fact, it was pretty much like her usual attire. A crop-topped middle, separating the tight fitting top portion and the loose flowing, knee-length skirt. She was wearing a thin veil, holding a bouquet of fall-colored leaves and barefoot to her desire.

Beside her, she was being walked down the aisle by none other than Greg Universe, Steven's father, dressed in his tuxedo from his adventures in empire city a few months ago.

Greg was tearing up as he walked Lapis down the aisle which was weird considering Peridot's major interaction with him was pushing him off of a roof and Lapis' was breaking his leg and sinking his boat.

But hey, weddings are beautiful so cut him some slack.

Lapis had always held an entrancing beauty to her, but Peridot's nervous front finally broke and she couldn't help but smile as this especially beautiful blue gem approached her.

 _"It sure took a lot of explaining to get here, though. For both of us."_

 ** _~The Barn a few weeks prior~_**

Peridot fell flat on her face, the ring still held delicately in her hand for safe keeping.

Lapis knelt down to Peridot, eyeing the collapsed green gem.

"Peridot?"

Lapis eyed the ring in question before delicately grabbing it from her hand and scanning it Peridot reacted immediately to not having the ring in her hand.

"W-w-w-wait! Lapis!"

"What's this ring for?"

"It's for uhh. It's a human tradition known as 'Marriage'. Peridot responded coolly.

Lapis just continued staring at the ring with curiosity.

"And what is that exactly?"

"From my research into the subject, it's a tradition in which two humans initiate into a commitment with one another due to the high amount of love they feel for each other."

Lapis shifted her gaze over to Peridot, who had a noticeable chill run up her spine from the eye contact.

"They also seem to promise themselves to each other forever, which seems silly coming from a human standpoint since they are so fragile and live relatively short lives compared to gems, and although this is slight logical fallacy on the part of humans- I think a commitment of this caliber would be ideal for gems."

Peridot had explained all of that with a very straight, matter-of-fact demeanor only to start blushing to towards the end and looking away nervously.

"And more specifically us."

Lapis' eyes started shimmering, nothing lighting up the barn but the moonlight dripping through the various holes in the structure.

"So what do you do when you're 'married'." Lapis continued probing Peridot for info.

"From what I could gather from various forms of media we would simply do what we've been doing for a while now, along with some of the other stuff which just started a few hours ago-"

Peridot paused, her blush deepening. Lapis face started to heat up as well.

"-But we just do it for the rest of our lives, which I stated before being gems could literally go on forever."

Lapis' eyes were diamond-shaped stars at this point. She looked back down at the ring.

"So how was I supposed to react whenever you presented me with this ring?"

"WELL! Once I presented the ring, you were supposed to light up with excitement."

"and?" Lapis asked expectantly.

"Then we I asked my proposal you were meant to say yes and allow me to put the ring on one of your fingers. Though I didn't consider you might be confused-"

Peridot felt her hand get pulled up and Lapis place the ring back in her hand. Peridot looked down at the ring in her hand then back up at Lapis who was looking as bored as she possibly could and looking off in the distance, Peridot was confused but then her eyes sparkled in excitement upon realization of what Lapis was doing.

"L-Lapis." Peridot said confidently like she'd practiced this before.

"Yes, Peridot?"

Lapis turned to meet Peridot eyes with her own. Peridot's confidence suddenly flew away.

 _"I just did this! Get a grip, Peridot!" she thought to herself._

 _"_ Lapis, would you marry me?" Peridot asked, somehow still nervous, as she presented her peridot ring to the lovely blue figure before her.

Lapis face went from her neutral, bored-looking face to unbelievably excited and happy in no time flat.

"Yes! Of course Peridot!" Lapis responded with so much enthusiasm, almost matching Peridot's day-to-day levels.

Peridot was star struck. Lapis face quickly returned to just a small sincere smile as she gestured her head towards her two outstretched hands, turning Peridot's attention to them.

Ten delicate blue fingers outstretch before Peridot, she looked carefully examining which one she want to attach her ring on. Peridot looked at them all but then settled on the second finger from the left.

It was only a coincidence that is just happened to be the left, ring finger where the ring traditionally belonged.

Peridot gently slipped the ring on Lapis' finger. And it went on with great ease if not a little tight.

"It is okay?"

"It's a little tight, honestly."

"OH! I can fix that! Just one moment."

Peridot held Lapis' left hand in her right hand and raised her left hand and formed a circle with her thumb and pointer finger. She then slowly expanded the circle she made with her fingers and the ring incrementally expanded to the perfect size to slip on and off of Lapis' finger at will.

"Better?"

Lapis looked down at Peridot big goofy grin.

"Perfect."

Lapis then quickly scooped up Peridot and without any warning placed a delicate, tender kiss of the green gem's lips. The green gem responded in kind.

The kiss broke.

"Now you need to help me with something."

Peridot eyed her curiously.

"What's that?"

"I need to find some Earth lapis lazuli so I can give you a ring, don't I?"

"I!...hadn't thought of that, but it sounds appropriate."

Lapis summoned her water wings and started taking to the skies.

"So why do you need me?"

Well, other than your wonderful company and helping me find it-"

Lapis pulled off Peridot's visor and placed it on her on her face, the stone on the ring glimmering in the moonlight.

"I need your visor because I want us to be married as soon as possible!"

Peridot's expression sunk slightly in the anxiety of another top speed Lapis flight. Her heterochromatic eyes shrinking at the thought.

Before she could protest they zoomed off in one direction, Peridot screaming in the distance.

 ** _~The wedding, weeks later~_**

The wedding hymn continued to play off in the distance. Peridot took, this time, to look to her left and right.

On her right, directly next to her stood Amethyst, who was wearing a purple suit and had her hair stylized in a fashionable ponytail, similarly to Greg's. Amethyst had her eyes closed, but opened them when she felt a pair of eyes on her. She looked to see it was Peridot, who was looking happy but nervous.

Amethyst nudged Peridot in the side with her elbow, smiling.

"Don't look so nervous, Peri. You'll pass out before she gets here."

Amethyst laughed very lightly, closing her eyes again waiting for this thing to start.

Peridot looked over to her left, and with a considerable amount of space between them stood none other than Steven Universe, but unlike Peridot and Amethyst he wasn't dressed in a suit, but instead was wearing dress akin to what Lapis normally did, replacing the diamond design usually tied to it with a star instead. Steven noticed Peridot looking at him and didn't say anything but elected to give a wink and the gun, stars seemingly being produced by said wink.

Peridot let out a deep breath and with the encouragement from both Steven and Amethyst, her features relaxed from their nervous state and instead were replaced by excitement and happiness and Lapis continued to walk down the aisle.

 _"I wasn't sure about this whole ceremony at first, but I'm glad Steven convinced us."_

 ** _~Back at the barn, a few days after Peridot's marriage proposal.~_**

Steven and Amethyst are going to visit the barn mates, unaware of anything that has transpired here for the past few days.

"She had a whole bunch of peridot. I'm really curious what she did with it all. They've probably made something so cool!"

Steven said clenching both of his hands into fists in front of his body, restraining his excitement.

"Yeah. They probably found a bunch of neat junk since I was here. Maybe I can borrow some to add to one of my piles!"

Amethyst said, smiling excitedly.

They approached the time just as they had before, but with far more enthusiasm about the adventures ahead of them than they had before- at least more than Amethyst had before.

When they were within sight of the barn they noted Peridot and Lapis were in their truck bed balcony with a discernable new TV, considering the last one got rained out.

Steven noted, however, that they weren't sitting side by side as they had been the last time they visited the barn mates in the countryside, instead, Peridot was nested comfortably in Lapis lap with Lapis wrapping her arms around the green gem, resting her chin on top of Peridot's hair scrunching it down.

"It's a color war, Paulette. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" the TV sounded off familiarly.

"Paulette just doesn't get it." Lapis stated.

"Paulette's inferior ability to understand the camps hierarchy is to blame." Peridot added.

Lapis leaned down and kissed Peridot's hair.

"I guess it might."

"HEY LOVEBIRDS!"

Peridot and Lapis' head moved in unison looking down seeing Steven and Amethyst.

Peridot gasped.

"Lapis! Fly us down! We have to tell them the news!"

Lapis' water wings were already out and Lapis already had a firm grip around Peridot' s torso as she flew them both down to the entrance of the barn to meet their guests.

"You guys looked so cute up there! When did this happen?" Steven asked squishing his face in excitement.

"Yeah, you guys are almost as bad as Ruby and Sapphire."

Lapis looked down at Peridot who she was still holding as Peridot looked up.

Peridot then broke the brief silence.

"It happened when we got married a few days ago!"

Steven and Amethyst's jaws dropped collectively.

"YOU GUYS DID WHAAAAT?!" Amethyst was the first to sound off.

Steven was still agape but unable to say anything.

"YES! We've even done the earth ritual of exchanging earth gemstones to enforce the strength of our commitment!"

Steven looked at Lapis' left hand and noticed a ring with a particularly glittering Peridot in it. Steven then looked down at Peridot's right hand and noticed a blue gemstone with golden specks attached to a ring on her finger.

"YOU GUYS HAD A WEDDING AND DIDN"T INVITE ANYONE?!" Steven finally spoke up in a little more than a yell.

Peridot's and Lapis' eyebrows furrowed at Steven's question.

"Do you know what he's talking about, Peri."

"No. Not quite. My research was brief, however, so maybe I skimmed over some details."

"Guys a wedding it absolutely essentially for a marriage! You can't be married and not have a wedding!"

Peridot and Lapis looked at each other then back at Steven.

"Then we must hurry!" Peridot threw her arms in the air. "Steven, Amethyst- what is the first step for this wedding ritual?"

Steven went to give a sincere answer, but Amethyst quickly slid in front of Steven.

"The first step to ANY wedding is, of course, picking out your maid of honor and best man- or in the case of this wedding, Maids of honor."

"Who should we choose to do that?" Lapis' headed tilted with the question.

"Simple! You just choose your second favorite person since you're already marrying your first favorite." Amethyst replied coolly with a wide grin plastered on her face.

The blue and green duo simply stared at Amethyst for a moment. Then very suddenly, Peridot broke out of Lapis' grasp and quickly ran up to Amethyst grabbing her right hand and excitedly moving it up and down.

"Amethyst! You can be mine! You'd be the best Maid of honor." Peridot stated factually.

"Aw shucks, Peri, I wouldn't say the best but if you're saying it then it's fine." Amethyst stuck her tongue out coyly.

While Peri was celebrating with her new Maid of Honor, Steven moved over towards Lapis.

"Hey, Lapis?"

"Yes, Steven?" Lapis said looking down at the child.

"I'll be your maid of honor." Steven said with a wink and a gun.

Lapis snorts and laughs for a few moments.

"Thanks, Steven. I was just about to ask you." Lapis replied evenly.

Peridot and Amethyst run up to Steven and Lapis.

"So what's next, Steven?"

"Oh! Ummmmmm"

Steven rested his hand underneath his chin, thinking.

Steven snaps

"We need to tell the other gems! They'll want to help with this as well."

"Yeah. Garnet will probably freak out when we tell her." Amethyst snarked, her eyes closed and hands behind her head.

Peridot looked excitedly towards Lapis who was looking particularly drained.

"Uhh, you guys go ahead. We'll catch up with you." Peridot threw out.

"Okay! We'll see you back at the temple!"

Steven ran off with Amethyst following behind him walking without a care in the world.

When they were a reasonable distance away, Peridot looked to Lapis.

"Are you okay? We don't have to go over there now if you'd rather not." Peridot said genuinely.

"I'll be okay, Peridot." Lapis responded weakly. "If it means making this marriage official then it'll be worth it."

"Alright! Weddings away!" Peridot said running off towards the warp bad. Lapis giggled, summoning her wings and following Peridot.

 ** _~The Wedding~_**

Lapis was about halfway up the aisle when she looked to her left.

Beyond the rows of chairs, there was Pearl who was currently dressed up in her 'waiter' attire with only one significant addition and that being a headset connected to nothing and no one but something Pearl simply decided to wear.

Playing the part up well.

Pearl was the one responsible for setting this all up.

Lapis looked ahead of her, and other than Peridot, Steven, and Amethyst and there was Garnet, dressed up in her suit

Peridot and Steven were right. The gems aren't bad people.

Lapis just needed a little time and something special to warm up to them.

 ** _~The temple, a couple of weeks before the wedding~_**

The warp pad sounds off and in its light appears Steven, Amethyst, Peridot and Lapis. Amethyst immediately heads to the couch while Steven heads for the Temple door.

"OOOH OOH! Lapis, you have to check out Steven's bathroom. It's where I first stayed after the gem captured me."

Peridot said pulling Lapis towards Steven's bathroom.

"Okay. Okay." Lapis responded letting herself get dragged

Meanwhile, Steven started banging on the temple door.

"GARNET! PEARL! We have big news."

The door to the house opens up, giving off its distinct creak.

"Steven. Why are Peridot and Lapis in your bathroom?"

Steven turns around to see the two gems in question he was looking for, Pearl staring down the hallway where Steven's bathroom is located with a bit of concern while Garnet settles herself down on the couch next to Amethyst who was already starting to snore.

"Oh! You guys!"

Steven runs to the middle of the living room.

"I have the MOST amazing news to share with you all!"

"Does it have anything to do with why Lapis and Peridot are playing with the toilet in your bathroom?"

Off in the distance, the sound of water being manipulated could be heard in the distance.

"Lapis, I don't think you understand what's been done in that toilet."

Lapis only laughed in response.

"Lapis, you better not."

A huge splash noise, along with a loud Peridot-esque shriek could be heard. A large flow of water coming out of the open doorway of the bathroom.

Steven coughs, bringing the attention back on him.

"Weirdly enough, yes! My news has everything to do with what's happening in my bathroom right now."

Lapis walks out of Steven's bathroom with a grumpy, wet Peridot holding her hand. Her hair dropping at the points from being soaked.

"Lapis and Peridot are getting married!"

The room went dead silent.

Pearl's eyes had taken over her entire face.

Garnet had removed her shades and each of her three eyes was open about as wide as they could manage.

The silence was broken by Amethyst's seemingly sleeping form raising her arm up and pointing at Garnet.

"That's the face I was talking about!"

Amethyst he proceeded to laugh as the two previously unaware gems' expressions starting normalizing out. Prompting Peridot to talk.

"It just seemed like the most logical thing to do. Considering our living arrangement and how close we've grown and how much we've grown together."

Lapis' grip on Peridot's hand tightened.

Steven laughed.

"Yeah and we thought we could all work together and give them a really great wedding since this is such a huge moment in their lives!" Steven suggested.

Peridot's grin was wide and proud.

Lapis wore a small but sincere smile.

Pearl had her hands clasped together in front of her face, tears staining the corners of her eyes. Garnet's expression had softened considerably from it's usually stoic, cold exterior with a small smile and relaxed eyes.

"We'd be happy to!" Pearl said, holding back a lump in her throat.

"Anything we can do to help." Garnet followed-up.

"Alright! Perfect!" Steven clapped his hands together. "So Pearl, you like organizing things so you can be the wedding planner."

"Well, alright. I've never tried but I'll do my best." Pearl nodded in determination.

"And Garnet. I think you might have something really special to share on the subject matter so I think you'd make a great minister for the wedding."

Garnet moved one of her hands in front of her eyes, forming a new visor.

"You can count on me."

"Alright! I think we're on the right track. Peridot, Lapis- are you ready to get married?"

"Yes, Steven!" both said in unison with big, toothy grins.

 ** _~Back at the wedding~_**

Lapis had finally reached her destination at the stage. She handed off her bouquet of leaves off to Steven who was more than happy to take them.

Lapis then turned towards Peridot, a sense of chill ran all the way up Peridot eventually ending at her hair and causing the points of her hair to fray vigorously that the edges. Peridot then put out her hands and suddenly the part of the platform she was right underneath shook, causing her tiny body to quake a little. Peridot then raised her hands up slowly and a small circular section of the platform began to rise bring Peridot up closer to Lapis' level. The platform raised about a foot off of the ground before a distinctive could be heard. Peridot let her hands relax and other than a bit of shaking, the platform Peridot was standing strong.

Pearl could be seen in the background, pumping a fist to herself, mouthing out the word yes.

Peridot then stared directly into Lapis thinly veiled eyes, and with a gentle, precise motion she grabbed the edges of said veil and lifted it up over Lapis' surprisingly, neatly coifed hair. Peridot for a second couldn't help but get lost in the beauty that stood before her. Peridot couldn't even think for a second that her trip to Earth would have led to this.

Then Lapis suddenly started reaching for Peridot's visor.

Grabbing it at each edge, Lapis removed Peridot's visor and quickly passed it back to Steven who took it upon himself to wear it to see what it felt like. Steven's face was a little too round for it, but the visor stayed on well enough.

Peridot's face was a little heated. She rarely was seen without her visor.

Of course, it started happening now a lot more with Lapis around.

"If I can't have a veil then neither can you, okay?" Lapis whispered.

Peridot's nerves were kicked up again, beads of sweat now falling from her uncovered face. Her two, differently-colored eyes looking back at Lapis' matching set before nodding once with her mouth clenched tightly together.

Peridot and Lapis maintained eye-contact for what felt like an eternity before Garnet coughed, bringing the attention on to her.

Garnet opened a book and readied herself to speak.

 ** _~About a week before the wedding, back at the barn, sunset~_**

The warp pad sounds off in the countryside. There stands Peridot and next her a stack of boxes which appeared to have Steven's legs.

"Haha! The trip to this fabled Empire City was a rousing success!" Peridot said holding a completely green tux in her arms; next to her is Steven who appeared to be holding several boxes worth of various commodities. The stack was about three times the size he was.

"Yeah, definitely."

The duo began walking.

"Why did Lapis decide to not come?"

"She said she had something to do. She wasn't very specific. I just kind of accepted it."

"I hope the measurements are alright for her dress. It's usually better to have the person there."

Peridot pointed towards Steven.

"No fears, Steven. My system of measurement was absolutely flawless!"

Peridot let out a couple of nye he hehe's while a light blushing came over her face.

They made it to the entrance of the barn. Steven put the stack of boxes right inside the entrance of the barn before turning to Peridot.

"Alright. Pearl said she needed my help setting stuff up over at the temple for the ceremony. Then she wants to come over here and set up some things for the reception. Is that okay with you guys?"

Peridot clenched one of her hands into a fist and lifted it to the sky.

"That will be more than adequate, Steven! I will be glad when we participate in these festivities and Lapis and I make out commitment as true as possible to your human customs."

Peridot threw out both of her hands with an open palm facing up, the tuxedo now hanging from a single finger. Peridot's face was shaped with a cocky smile.

"Okay! Say hi to Lapis for me!" Steven said before jumping off into the distance. Peridot watched him until he became invisible in the horizon then turned around to her home.

"She's probably upstairs."

Peridot grabbed a nearby garbage can lid and hopped on top of it, unsteadily lifting her form into the air until she was able to jump to the ledge of the second floor leaving the trash can lid hitting the ground with a 'tang'.

When Peridot had finally lifted herself onto the loft of the barn, she was more than a little surprised at what was the first thing in her line-of-sight.

There before her was Lapis Lazuli, dancing with a water clone version of Peridot.

The size, the shape, the masterful details were enough to match the original!

Lapis being the lead in the duo of dancers eventually reached a point in time where she dipped water-dot, and after elected to hold said pose for a great few moments. Lapis opened her eyes and looked deeply into water Peridot's eyes.

"I hope I can do this well with the original."

"Yes! I agree!"

Lapis' head snapped up to meet Peridot, a big, goofy grin is spread across the green gems face.

"I just hope I will be able to keep up with you, Lapis!"

Lapis' water clone Peridot dissipated in her hands and feel to the ground to become nothing more than a puddle of water. Lapis immediately threw up her hands and covered her face in embarrassment.

"You weren't supposed to see me. I thought I'd hear you come in but I must have been so focused that I wasn't listening."

"I was at my usual decibel level." Peridot said before letting her smile fade and having a more serious face.

"Why were you practicing dancing with a water clone of me, Lapis?"

"I'm just really worried." Lapis replied stoically, deciding to sit on the ground and pull her legs closer to her body.

Peridot immediately went as fast as her stubby legs could carry her and knelt down with Lapis, taking one of her pale blue hands into her green ones.

"Lapis, what are you worried about?"

"I'm worried that…." Lapis bit her lip for a moment deciding whether she wanted to continue talking, looking at Peridot and seeing there was nowhere for her turn and hide when it came to saying what she needed to say, she spoke up again.

"I'm worried that when we dance at this 'reception' after this 'wedding' and I let myself relax too much that we'll fuse and-"

Lapis brought both her empty hand and the one Peridot was cupping to her head, her facial features tensing up.

"I just don't think I'm ready to fuse again. With anyone."

Peridot looked down at Lapis, her expression serious and unchanging.

"And I didn't know how to tell you because I didn't want to hurt you, so I figured I would do this instead. If I practiced enough then maybe I could get through this wedding without anything happening."

Lapis looked up at Peridot. Lapis had single tear building up in her right eye, Peridot's expression still had changed. A green hand then came into Lapis' field of vision and with a gentle stroke took the tear right from Lapis' eye. Lapis watched Peridot's face change. From a serious attentive face to a pair of sad eyes coupled with a small, genuine smile.

"Lapis. I understand. I would never expect you to fuse unless you were absolutely ready."

Peridot bit her lip on the knowledge that she may not even be able to fuse being an era-2 peridot.

"But, I must elect a different method for you!" Peridot said standing up, holding down a hand to help Lapis up.

"Why would you train with a duplicate when you can train with the original!"

"But Peridot what if-"

Lapis was cut off by a green finger on her lips.

"You can say no right now and if you do say yes to trying then you can say no any time while we are dancing if you are uncomfortable and don't want to do it anymore."

Lapis looked up at Peridot and her outstretched hand.

Lapis smiled, taking the hand gladly and using it to help herself up.

"So how do we begin?"

Lapis responded by slipping an arm around Peridot's body and pulling Peridot towards her.

 ** _~Back at the wedding (AN- Sorry for the writing whiplash, from here on there are no more flashbacks. I was trying out something I thought was cool in terms of writing and I hope you all did as well)_**

"Dearly beloved,"

Garnet stated simply, everyone's eyes looked up towards her. Besides the people on the stage, there was Greg, Connie and her parents, Pearl on the outskirts, Peridot's alien plushie and weirdly enough Sadie and Lars.

"We've come here today to celebrate the binding two beings in the thralls of something far stronger than any force on Earth or Homeworld."

Garnet swaths a hand in front of her visor causing it to disappear and letting her earnest emotions pour into her speech,

"And that's love."

"Love. A force which sways us all in some way or form. Whether it is the love shared between friends."

Sadie and Lars are showed.

"Or the love shared between family."

Greg and the Maheswarans are showed.

"Or in the case of today's ceremony, the love shared between two strangers who have found a special connection and a sense of belonging to each other that they want to spend the rest of their lives together in the rich harmony of understanding, communication, and love."

The audience, albeit small, was being moved to tears.

Except for Lars, he was asleep, but the fact that he was even there was more than enough coming from him.

"And in the case of this human tradition, I can think of no better participants for it and for each other than Peridot and Lapis Lazuli. Two gems who have not only been learning to love Earth but have been learning to love each other more and more with each passing day they have here on their new home planet."

Garnet closed the book she had in her hands for no reason other than to close it dramatically when she was done with her speech.

"Now. Do you two have any special vows you'd like to say or should we get this party rolling?"

Garnet asked , returning her visor, but not before shedding a tear, thinking about what she was doing.

Peridot and Lapis looked at each other.

"After you." Lapis put forward.

Peridot squeaked with excitement as she reached her right hand into her green blazer and pulled out a massive rolled up piece of paper which comically unfurled out, bouncing down the stairs of the platform eventually reaching the red carpet stationed on the sandy beach.

"I-!"

Peridot started with one big huff but was met by a delicate blue hand on her shoulder.

"I'll read all of it later, but maybe summarize it for everyone else."

Peridot quickly rolled up her comically long list and stuffed back into her blazer. She grabbed up Lapis' hands and stared her directly in the eyes.

"Lapis. I would be telling an untruth if I said I wasn't the slightest bit intrigued whenever you first arrived in Garnet's arms to the barn. I wanted to prove to myself that I had changed by being your friend, but more than that I wanted to prove to you that I had changed by, as Steven put it once, showing you 'my sweet'. Everything was really rough at first but then things started changing. We started getting closer."

Peridot pulled Lapis' hands towards her torso.

"And the closer we got the room I started to realize how much you meant to me."

Tears started welling in the eyes of Peridot's recipient.

"You weren't just someone I was stuck on Earth with anymore. You weren't just a friend of mine anymore. You became my home. You made me feel safe. You made me feel welcome. And you made living on this planet far more worthwhile than it would've been without you. So in light of all of this, I, the great and well-worded Peridot, vow to you Lapis Lazuli that I can be everything to you that you are and have been to me."

Tears were streaming down Lapis' face, a rare thing for Lapis.

Even rarer since they were happy tears.

"I hope that one day that I can be your home too." Peridot finished.

Garnet rubbed underneath her visor really quickly.

"Lapis, anything you want to say?"

"Peridot, I've never had someone care about me so genuinely, so purely and so selflessly. I hope one day I can love you a fraction as powerfully as you love me."

Lapis' was short and succinct, but it still had Peridot bawling like a baby by the end of it.

"Now, if you two would like to present each other with the rings you made-"

Garnet fiddles with her visor.

"-again."

Lapis turns towards Steven and Steven slips his hand behind his body real quick and in a flash produces Peridot's lapis lazuli ring.

Peridot turns towards Amethyst who was currently fiddling with her ponytail, she pulls something straight down from behind her body and her hair fell wildly around her body and she produced the ring to Peridot who eyed Amethyst with a 'seriously' face.

"Hey. Helped me remember where it was." Amethyst shrugged before putting the ring in Peridot's hand and turning her around and pushing her into Lapis.

Peridot glanced at Lapis, a little embarrassed being shoved this close in front of all of these people.

Lapis rolled her eyes and grabbed Peridot's right hand, and put the lapis lazuli ring on Peridot's right ring finger- slipping it on with great ease.

Lapis then displayed her left hand expectantly. Peridot gulped quickly before shakily going to put the ring on Lapis' finger and sliding it on, albeit with far less ease than Lapis had.

Lapis and Peridot eyes met after exchanging rings, a small sparkle of happiness easily visible when looking into each other's eyes.

"Then by the power vested in me by myself, I now pronounce these two gems as married. Peridot, Lapis, you may kiss the bride."

All eyes were suddenly on the blue and green duo. Fron the tear-stained eyes of Steven, Greg and Pearl, Connie, and Sadie, to the respect glances of Connie Parents to the cocky one-eyed gaze from Amethyst, to the enigmatic stare of Garnet and the Alien plushie.

Lars was still asleep, but he was there so whatever.

Peridot's nerves were worked right up. Unable to move properly despite how much she really wanted to with all of this attention placed on her to perform.

Was she going to do it right?

Was Peridot going to mess something up and cause them to have to repeat the ceremony?

A thousand questions beat through Peridot's little head, which made the next thing that happened all the better for the surprise.

Whilst Peridot was distracted, Lapis had pulled up the green gems head and, before Peridot could even process, planted her pale blue lips on Peridot's neon green pair.

Peridot reciprocated the force but Peridot was not able to do it nearly quick enough, so she and Lapis were sent barreling over the edge of Peridot's small platform in a heat of passion.

The fall, although startling for Peridot, was not enough to warrant breaking up what was happening now, so she never broke contact with Lapis and decided to take the brunt of the fall.

Peridot was built tough, after all.

A loud thud rang out, causing the audience to gasp.

Peridot and Lapis had yet to still break contact, to the point where garnet had to intervene and picking each of them up in one of her hands.

"Save it for after the reception you two, we've got kids in the audience."

Garnet started at what would be perceivably the fourth wall before putting Lapis and Peridot down.

Garnet stepped forward on the stage.

"All right everyone, thank you for coming. We'll be doing the reception and Peridot and Lapis barn for anyone who wants to join- if not- bye."

Garnet jumped off towards the house very suddenly.

And the mix of people started going their various directions.

Sadie elbowed Lars and the both of them got up. Sadie thanked Steven for inviting them and they walked off back towards town.

Connie's parents hugged their daughter before deciding to make their exit. They entrusted Greg/Steven to get her back home safely.

Connie, Steven, Pearl and Amethyst started walking towards the beach house, Steven stopped to look back at the newlyweds.

"Are you guys getting back home on your own?"

"Naturally, Steven! Being purposefully late is 'cool'."

Peridot air quoted the word cool.

"At least that's what Amethyst says."

"Haha, alright. I assume you're going to need this then, Lapis!"

Steven threw Peridot's visor towards Lapis who still could only half-heartedly try and catch it.

It flew over her hand, landing in the sand behind them.

Peridot picked it up and dusted it off, before promptly handing it over to Lapis who's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're not afraid?"

"Oh, absolutely terrified! But we are married now and I think that implicates a certain amount of trust is required to keep the commitment strong. So-"

Peridot lifted her arms in the air expectantly, ready to be picked up as per usual.

Lapis did just that, carrying Peridot bridal style. The irony is not lost on this situation.

Lapis summoned her water wings, and with a beat of her wings was propelled into the air and zooming off in the direction of the barn.

 ** _~Back at the Barn~_**

Lapis lands softly in front of the entrance of the barn, letting Peridot down gently and passing down to her, her visor. Lapis' hair which was neatly coifed during the wedding is now a familiar messy, bedhead.

"Are you ready, Lapis?"

Lapis breathed in deeply and exhaled.

"I hope so."

The blue and green pair walk into their Barn and it looked completely different than it had up to that point.

Mostly cleaner.

The first floor was completely organized and all of Peridot and Lapis' morps were put on the top floor. All of these adjustments made the barn look quite empty, other than that the next biggest thing different was the center floor of the barn was covered in the stage lighting Greg used back in his young, rocker days. It wasn't lit, yet.

"And now that Peridot and Lapis have decided to join us, they can grace us with the first dance of the night."

Garnet announced over a microphone

Everyone turn their eyes towards Peridot and Lapis, who slowly approached the center stage.

Peridot and Lapis grabbed each other's hands and stood arm's length from each other. Garnet looked towards Pearl and gave her a thumbs up, at which point Pearl tapped her foot down on a pedal which perfectly synced up with the start of the song.

The song which played was something which eerily resembled "Genghis Khan" in both style and

 **(AN: Lauren Zuke's fanart of Lapidot "Genghis Khan" got to me, sorry.)**

The dance Peridot and Lapis performed to it looked like it was well choreographed. Something that Lapis and Peridot had practiced consistently for hours and hours- even in spite of all of this they were still happier than could be and even though they were incredibly in sync for the duration of the song-

Their gems never started glowing once.

The song came to an end, and it ended with Lapis dipping Peridot, seeing as how that was much easier than the other way around.

Everyone, granted that was five people, all clapped as vigorously as possible and filled the barn with applause.

Lapis lifted Peridot up and spun her around, and with a surprising amount of agility and grace Peridot continued in one fluid motion to finish off with a bow.

"Yes, our dancing ability is one that would make even Homeworld quake in their boots!"

The next song played and the rest of the people at the reception took to the dance floor and began to have a good time, seemingly ignoring Peridot's boasts.

Lapis took her exit from the event in question.

"Peridot, I'm going to get some fresh air. You can stay and have fun for a little while."

"Do you need anything?"

Lapis smiled wearily at Peridot.

"I need you to have fun with everybody tonight. I just need a little break."

Lapis gave Peridot a quick kiss before turning to leave.

Peridot stopped Lapis in her tracks for a brief moment, hugging her tightly around her torso.

"I just wanted to say- Wow! Thanks! For dancing with me."

Lapis pet Peridot's hair.

"Well, we are married now."

They stared at each other with star eyes for a brief moment before Peridot let go and let Lapis fly off to their truck bed balcony.

Peridot then ran back into the small crowd of friends who were all dancing and joined them. Peridot pulled out a signature move she called "The Peri-bot". It was literally just the robot but everybody loved it.

 ** _~A few hours later~_**

The night continued on liked that for a while until eventually, the festivities came to an end and the reception guests decided to take their leave.

"Thank you all for coming!" Peridot waved off her guests. Garnet was carrying a sleeping Amethyst. Steven was carrying a tired Connie and Pearl was walking confidently in the middle of the two pairs.

Peridot smiled widely.

Today had been a good day.

Peridot looked up and behind her, seeing Lapis lying down in their truck bed balcony.

"Hey, Lapis!"

Lapis eyes opened and she looked over the edge of the balcony.

"Yes, Peridot?"

"Everyone left, so I just wanted to let you know that you can come down whenever you want."

"I don't know. I'm feeling more like flying. Do you want to go flying?"

Peridot looked visibly distressed.

"Just for fun. Not trying to get anywhere so I won't go _too_ fast." Lapis assured her green gem wife.

"Those terms sound agreeable!"

Peridot announced loudly to no one specifically.

And just like that Peridot was scooped up by Lapis and before they knew it they were in the sky. Peridot and Lapis worked together in order to maneuver Peridot is such a way so she could ride on Lapis' back.

"Flying from up here is much better." Peridot said, taking in the wonderful view of the secluded night time sky of the countryside.

"It's nice to fly around for fun. I like taking in the sights."

Lapis said before looking back at Peridot slightly mischievously.

"Do you know what's even better though?"

"No. What." Peridot said, still very distracted by all of the sights all around her.

"The tricks." Lapis said starting to spiral like a drill, taking Peridot by surprise as she desperately clung on for dear life. Lapis laughing the entire way and eventually deciding to introduce Peridot to the loop de loop. Peridot being completely unprepared for this, had her grip slip and started falling from Lapis. Peridot let out an adorable little shriek which stopped as quickly as it began when Lapis caught peridot by the arms.

Peridot was a little more than surprised and looked up at her blue gem wife . Lapis couldn't hold in her laughter anymore after seeing Peridot's surprised face. She let out a snort.

And Peridot, seeing Lapis so happy started laughing her distinctive nyeh heh heh's.

The two gems then entered into a large gathering of clouds and were completely invisible.

The only thing that could be seen from the inside the cloud cover was a bright light and suddenly the two distinct laughs seemed to meld into one.

*Snort*

"Nyeh hehehehehe."

Was all that was heard from within the cloud.

The cloud cover would eventually end, however and out of it a very large figure appeared. This figure was perfectly silhouetted by the moonlight, any distinct features it has completely covered by shadows in the thick of the night.

"This isn't so bad when you do it with someone you love." Said the singular airborne figure, seemingly to herself.

The featureless shadow continued to fly in the night time air, the only thing visible on it was a large, white, toothy grin.


End file.
